🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Nov16.125741.22619@news.Hawaii.Edu> 
lee@Hawaii.Edu (Greg Lee) writes:

>Michael Zeleny (zeleny@husc10.harvard.edu) wrote:

>>cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm) writes:

>>>lee@Hawaii.Edu (Greg Lee) writes:

GL:
>>>>Paraphrases are expressions that mean the
>>>>same thing, so there must be a thing that they mean, and once we've
>>>>found it, we'll know why they are paraphrases.

CM:
>>>Reification rides again! Why must there be such a thing? Why could not
>>>paraphrases be identifiable simply by a certain kind of transformation
>>>capable of turning one into another?

MZ:
>>This is a bogus objection, Chris. ...

GL:
>I didn't see Chris's followup, so I'm taking this opportunity to
>agree with him.  I was just kidding.  "Mean the same thing" is
>just a manner of speaking, perhaps reflecting some folk theory
>which, however, we're under no obligation to accept.

Who's that "we", kemosabe?  If you don't feel that being bound by
logic is a *moral* obligation, would you still have any basis for a
reasonable expectation that your tooting your car's horn at a bunch of
Samoan Hell's Angels does not *mean* your informed consent for them to
peel off your skin and rip out your heart?  Do you have a glimmer of
understanding that your human rights are not worth the market value of
the chemicals that comprise your anatomy, *if* there be no such things
as matters of fact about meaning?

cordially,
mikhail zeleny@husc.harvard.edu
" -- I shall speak bluntly, because life is short."