[Wittrs] Re: Dennett's brain
- From: "swmaerske" <SWMirsky@xxxxxxx>
- To: wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:18:38 -0000
--- In Wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Sean Wilson <whoooo26505@...> wrote:
>
> ... well, the penalties aren't moral. They really aren't "penalties" more
> than they are "pointers." So there is never anything to apologize
> for. Imagine someone saying to you, "your tires need air," when you couldn't
> see the same. You wouldn't say "I'm sorry."
>
> As to knowing when tires need air, very often you can't see this at all when
> you are in the car. You therefore need the pointers.
>
> Of couse, you can reduce the risk of preventing deflation in the tire. To do
> that, try not to drive over nails. Nails are little, of course, and very
> often cannot be seen. But you do have more notice in here of where nails are
> than you do out on the road. In here, for example, you know that a poster's
> capacity cannot be talked about, which means that even if a person
> hypothetically (or intentionally) makes dumb and silly remarks, one could
> never interject as a point of discussion that the person is being dumb and
> silly. This isn't because it would be wrong to do so -- a debatable point --
> it is because: (a) it is irrelevant to the group; and (b) encourages replies
> of like kind.
>
> And so one thinks no nails are on the road, but after driving thousands of
> miles, the tire suddenly becomes a little low. And a good samaritan like
> myself simply points it out. The only purpose being charity and benevolence
> -- and, of course, continued safe driving.
>
> Yours in Goodyear.
>
I feel like a member of AAA. Wait, I am! (My wife signed us up years ago and
I've given up changing my own tires and batteries ever since!)
Anyway, I didn't mean to suggest Bruce was "silly" but only that he had said
something silly. I thought "silly" a fairly innocuous term but that may be in
the eyes of the beholder, eh? Of course, it's also arguable that saying someone
has said something "silly" is tantamount to calling them that though the logic
need not imply that, I think. Some very unsilly people may occasionally stumble
into some very silly locutions after all.
However, I agree that seeming to disparage a person invites rejoinders of the
same sort and soon we have spiralled into argument and invective and lost sight
of any opportunity to learn from one another or share ideas. We saw this
happen, in spades, during our sojourn on Analytic so I especially appreciate
the auto club approach here. Keep letting us know when we stumble out of
bounds, Sean. So far your approach has really served to contain the perhaps
more negative traits all of us, in discussion, may be prone to. This list has
so far proved the happy exception to nearly all the others I have ever posted
on. It likely couldn't have happened had Sean not made it his business to apply
the things he (and some others of us learned) while posting elsewhere.
Okay, no apologies, Bruce. I just retract what I said and hope we can move
forward from here.
SWM
P.S. The other evening I met some old friends in NYC for a reunion dinner. It
was a lot of fun and only a few blocks from The Strand bookstore. You were
right, Sean, the Annex Strand at the South Street Seaport is gone now -- I have
confirmed it -- but at least the original is still there. I picked up Young
Ludwig by McGuinness there and have begun reading it. Somewhat stuffily written
but great stuff! I also picked up a copy of my favorite historical novel, The
Golden Warrior by Hope Muntz. Published in the 1940's it's long out of print
but I have always been in the habit of buying every used copy I find and then
giving them away. The one I bought that evening I gave to the woman who
organized our get-together. I hope she likes it. For those historically or
novelistically inclined here, I recommend it highly. Not philosophy, of course,
but a veritable English Iliad if you like that sort of thing! Hell, we can't
read philosophy all the time.
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