Language and Logic (General)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Thursday, April 03, 2014, 05:08 (3670 days ago) @ dhw

DHW: I must confess, I'm disappointed at the turn this discussion has taken! I have seven dictionaries here (I tend to buy new ones and keep the old ones) and only one of them omits the meaning of "being the cause". Romansh's example is perfectly normal English. I don't know if this might be a difference between British and American English, though I do have one American dictionary which also gives the above meaning. But it is the following that disturbs me more.
> -Perfectly normal English is often not compatible with highly specific and nuanced discussions, and you know that as well as I do. I have listened to you and David go round and round on some minuscule nuance of a word for months, so I don't see why you are taking what I said this way. -If this were a generic conversation, and not getting nuanced into some very specific grounds, I would have let the layman's usage of the word, invalid though it truly is, slide without comment. However, you know as well as I do that the word well and truly means 'having the ABILITY and/or obligation to RESPOND'. -As for Romansh's bringing the Sun into it, the sun does not RESPOND to anything. It is a purely causal entity in the context in which it was used, hence the need to point out the etymology and true meaning of the word that was being abused. 
 ->DHW It is Romansh who has pointed out to Tony the double meaning of "responsible" (which Tony, in my view quite wrongly, calls a misuse)..-See Above->Dhw: (cont..), and yet it is Romansh who insists on twisting the meaning. This, I fear, is a deliberate case of distortion, since Romansh has obviously studied ALL the dictionary definitions, but then claims that people are to be held responsible IN THE SAME SENSE as the sun. -Agreed. This is why it was necessary to point out the etymology and root meaning, the original meaning, of the word. Just because a few billion people say 0 is 1 doesn't make it true, it just means there are a few billion people misusing 0 & 1. Languages are subjective to an extent, and they do change over time, but this is a blatant abuse of the word.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.