[lit-ideas] Re: Expectant Father (Was: Tautology)
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 12:59:58 EDT
In a message dated 9/22/2004 12:42:06 PM Eastern Standard Time,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
McEvoy would also say that since some women (sadly) give birth not even
knowing what is happening until it is all over there is also a
counter-example to the "expectant mother", unless we engage again in similar
"irresponsible analyticism" ie. stipulating such a person is somehow not a
mother for the purposes of the expression "expectant mother".
Here's an expression for discussion as analytic/tautologous - "Popper was
bored by most analytic philosophy as trivial and question-begging because of
the kinds of reason given here by way of reply to JLS".
----
Well, thank you.
I now see what P. Stone thought when he thought that 'expectant mother' was
a tautology.
Apparently, 'expecting [sic, null set]' is "slang" for "... is pregnant".
Since a father can not be pregnant, I can't see how McEvoy goes on to
justify the expression "expectant _father_". Surely synthetic a posteriori, and
a
posteriori false.
Now, as applied to 'mother', the idea is:
"Alice is expecting" iff "Alice is pregnant".
The path from "... is expecting" to " ... is an expectant mother" is
syntactic.
If we are broad-minded enough to apply 'expectant' for a _past_ adverbial
("She _was_ an expectant mother"), then, via the principle:
Once an expectant mother,
always an expectant mother
-- then, _indeed_, 'expectant mother' _is_ tautologous (and indeed
redundant); for, surely, every mother has (to be, at some time) 'pregnant' and
that's
what the 'expecting' idiom merely means.
Cheers,
JL
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