In a message dated 10/4/2004 2:57:49 PM Eastern Standard Time, rmitchell@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes: Donal is "rooting for anti-essentialism" - on a computer presumably purchased with an eye towards its power, speed, memory, durability, etc., etc. - the "virtues" (i.e., "excellences") that determine how well that device performs the functions that he bought it for. In that respect, I don't know how one would anti-essentially purchase anything. ---- Exactly. Note that a computer, essentially, computes. While a word-processor word-processes (words). (cf. McEvoy's irreverent, "A philosopher bullshits"). McEvoy, like Popper, does not believe in _essences_. In this, he reminds me of Andy Amago, who, too, says that life is meaningless. Cheers, JL ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html