Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Language Matters

  • Word of the Day: Demesne

    Merriam-Webster: 1: legal possession of land as one's own 2: manorial land actually possessed by the lord and not held by tenants 3a: the land attached to a mansion b: landed property : ESTATE c: REGION sense 2, TERRITORY 4: REALM sense 2, DOMAIN How does one acquire a large vocabulary? The first rule is to read, read widely, and read worthwhile materials, especially old books and…

  • Mary Midgley on Complaints about Clarity

    Here at Maverick Philosopher: Strictly Philosophical.

  • ‘Wankerati’ and Other Terms of Abuse

    I  picked up a new piece of invective from Mark Steyn. I believe he intends 'wankerati' to be coextensive with 'left-wing commentariat.'  Read his The Turning Point and see if you don't agree. The brilliant polemicist offers up other choice phrases such as "malign carbuncles on the body politic." That's a reference to Di Fi…

  • More Grist for the Moral Mill

    If you tell one lie, are you a liar? I should think not. A liar is one who habitually lies. Otherwise, we would all be liars and the term 'liar' would perish from lack of contrast. If you have been seriously drunk a time or two, are you a drunkard? I should think not. A…

  • ‘Nonconsensual Choking’

    I was struck by a curious expression I found in a recent NYRB piece: I faced criminal charges including hair-pulling, hitting during intimacy in one instance, and—the most serious allegation—nonconsensual choking while making out with a woman on a date in 2002. As opposed to what? Consensual choking? So if you are on a date…

  • A Letter from Ronald Reagan to his Dying Father-in-Law

    Here: Loyal Davis, Reagan’s father-in-law and a pioneering neurosurgeon, was just days away from death. Something else worried Reagan: The dying man was, by most definitions of the word, an atheist. “I have never been able to subscribe to the divinity of Jesus Christ nor his virgin birth. I don’t believe in his resurrection, or a…

  • ‘Democracy’

    Are you becoming as sick of this word as I am? Fareed Zakaria complains of a threat to democracy — from the Left. Conservatives, he notes, are regularly denied a platform. If you have been following the news, you know that Stephen K. Bannon is a recent example of one denied. But how is this…

  • “The Jury is Still Out”: A Silly Sentence When Used by Philosophers

    One sometimes comes across 'the jury is still out' in technical philosophical writing. A philosopher might write that 'the jury is still out' on some question, for example, whether the triviality objection to presentism is sustainable.  It's a silly thing to say. It is first of all obvious that philosophical inquiry, though in some ways…

  • Of ‘Blind Review’ and Pandora’s Box

    This is a repost from 1 April 2014. I was reminded of it by a missive from Spencer Case who rightly complains about a more recent bit of related academentia.  But if I link to it, you won't read what I have to say below. I will talk about the latest outrage perhaps tomorrow. ……………………………….…

  • Can a Black be a Racist?

    More generally, can a non-white be a racist?  It depends on what a racist is. The unfortunate tendency is to bandy the term about undefined. This serves the purposes of those who want an all-purpose verbal cudgel with which to attack their opponents. I will give you my definition, one that ought to appeal to…

  • Phrase of the Day: ‘London to a Brick’

    I just now encountered this strange expression in Graham Oppy's review of Owen Anderson's, The Clarity of God's Existence: The Ethics of Belief after the Enlightenment. The phrase occurs in this passage: On the one hand, given that Anderson insists that he cannot be satisfied with ‘a sound proof that is extremely difficult to understand and…

  • On the Correct Use of ‘Begging the Question’

    On Thursday, June 21, 2012 I  heard Dennis Prager on his nationally-syndicated radio show use 'beg the question' when what he meant was 'raise the question.'  This is a very common mistake nowadays. I correct Mr. Prager because I love him. The visage of Jeff Dunham's 'Walter' signals that a language rant is in the…

  • Propaganda

    Despite the term's largely pejorative connotation, propaganda is not by definition false or misleading or harmful. Propaganda is anything of a verbal or pictorial nature that is propagated to influence behavior.  Propaganda can consist of truths or falsehoods, good advice or bad, exhortation to good behavior or subornation of bad. Anti-smoking and anti-drug messaging are…

  • As You Know . . .

    . . . there seem to be no limits of logic or sanity on what a 'liberal' will maintain. The latest lunacy is the politically correct prohibition of the phrase 'as you know.'  You must not say this because it might make a snowflake feel inadequate. Permit me to explain why some of us use…

  • Use and Mention

    Tim Kaine, pajama boy, without any breach of logico-linguistic propriety, sez: