I'm always amazed when professional philosophers stoop to engage me in debate. I thank you all for your magnanimity (that's sincerely meant, not my ususal sarcasm).
We see birds as "animals," not as plants, because they have more in common with other animals than with plants.
Yes. I agree. But what is there in the word "bird" that suggests "animal"? Perhaps etymologically "bird" has some reference to flying animals? -- I don't know. How do the names "cabbage, carrot, rutabaga" express the essence of vegetative existence? What in the word "motor" says mineral? I don't believe that names tell us anything anything beyond a grouping of like things. The words "bird", "oiseau"," uccello", "pajaro", though I admit to knowing nothing or their etymology, seem to me to be arbirtrary names, though, of course, they each have a history.
Mike Geary Memphis----- Original Message ----- From: "John Wager" <jwager@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 10:16 AM Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Wet Logos
Mike Geary wrote:I think we DO classify, even though it's flexible. "flyers" or "birds" or "AIR shitters" do, in their own way, identify an "essential" feature of birds, that they fly. (Let's give the Greeks a pass on penguins for the moment.) We see birds as "animals," not as plants, because they have more in common with other animals than with plants. We DON'T call them "air rocks," after all.Do we? Then why don't we call birds "flyers" or "air shitters"?Again, I think that most names of things are arbitrarily given though there's probably some tendency to relate a new thing/idea to its origin or originator or "nature".Mike Geary MemphisThere is a LOT of medieval freight going on here. The "nominalists" read naming as you do. You're a nominalist. Isn't that nice to know? The "realists" read naming as I've indicated here: A name reveals something about the inner nature of a thing, not just an arbitrary sound identifying an object.------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
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