Category: Language Matters
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Hodges Weighs in on ‘Suicide Bomber’
Dear Bill, Interesting discussion on 'suicide' bombers. I prefer the expression "suicide bomber" to "homicide bomber." I think that the term "bomber" implies that the individual is aiming not solely at suicide but at other killing or destruction, too. I also like the fact that Islamists object to the term "suicide" since suicide is forbidden…
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More on ‘Suicide Bomber’/’Homicide Bomber’
I have been receiving e-mail about my earlier post on this topic. Here is one letter: I fear you may have been a little harsh on Bill Keller in your recent post about the virtues of calling suicide bombers 'homicide bombers'. Whilst I accept the conceptual and definitional analysis of the terms, surely the simple point is…
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Chutzpah
A delightful word of Yiddish, 'chutzpah' is in the semantic vicinity of 'insolence,' 'effrontery,' 'impudence,' 'gall.' An excellent contemporary example of chutzpah: building a mosque and huge Islamic center a couple of blocks from where nearly three thousand Americans were slaughtered in the name of Islam. As we say in the Southwest, that takes cojones!
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‘Suicide Bomber’ or ‘Homicide Bomber’?
Bill Keller is the Executive Editor of the New York Times. I saw him on C-Span 1 on the morning of 1 September 2004. In response to a caller who brought up the issue of liberal bias in the NYT, Keller rightly pointed out that political opponents often try to seize control of the terminology…
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On Strictu Dictu and Holus Bolus
If memory serves, I picked up strictu dictu from an article by the philosopher C. B. Martin. It struck me as a bit odd, but having found it in use by other good writers, I started using it myself. Using it, I am in good company. But classicist Mike Gilleland, who knows Latin much, much…
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On the Illicit Use of ‘By Definition’
What is wrong with the following sentence: "Excellent health care is by definition redistributional"? It is from a speech by Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, speaking to a British audience about why he favors government-run health care. I have no objection to someone arguing that health care…
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Plato
Both his greatness as a thinker and the probity of his quest for truth are revealed in the fact that Plato is not only the father of the Theory of Forms, but also the author of the most penetrating criticisms of them. (By the way, the above aphorism is crafted in such a way as…
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Between Thought and Action
Between thought and action lies speech, which can substitute for either. It can just as easily mask thoughtlessness as impede action. Right speech, however, does not substitute for thought or action, but mediates them. Giving expression to thought, it enables intelligent action.
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Feds Sue Arizona Over S.B. 1070 and the Etymology of ‘Shyster’
Here is the full text of the complaint. Dive in if you can stomach it. It lends credence to Martin Luther's "Reason is a whore." But these days, with the upgrading of prostitutes to 'sex workers,' the saying should go, 'Reason is a lawyer.' Pay them enough, and they will argue anything. The complaint alleges that…
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Amphiboly
Amphiboly is syntactic ambiguity. "The foolish fear that God is dead." This sentence is amphibolous because its ambiguity does not have a semantic origin in the multiplicity of meaning of any constituent word, but derives from the ambiguous way the words are put together. On one reading, the construction is a sentence: 'The foolish/ fear…
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Word of the Day: ‘Invigilate’
To invigilate is to watch over students who are taking an exam so as to prevent cheating.
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Word of the Day: ‘Ochlocracy’
From the Greek ochlokratia, from the Greek ochlos (mob) + -kratia (-cracy): government by the mob, mob rule. Example from an esteemed member of the MavPhil Commenter Corps: "I just tell my students and anyone else I know not to read the Wikipedia article [Philosophy] except for a laugh. It's one of those areas where…
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Are Immigration Laws Discriminatory?
Liberals routinely complain that immigration laws such as the recently enacted Arizona Senate Bill 1070 are 'discriminatory.' This is nonsense, of course, but it is important to understand why. 1. Let's start with the very notion of discrimination. Discrimination as such is neither good nor bad. In this respect it is like change. Change as…
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‘Superb’
'Superb' is still able to convey a hint of the Latin, superbia, pride. A thoughtful writer bears this in mind. But in a world of thoughtless readers, there is not much call for thoughtful writers. This reflection occasioned by a sentence from a secondary source on Pascal: "[The extrinsic proofs of Christianity] are humiliating to the…
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The Truth Operator and the Truth Predicate
This is an addendum to our earlier discussion which I hope will advance it a step or two. We heard Alan Rhoda claim that the following sentence is false: 'If nothing exists, then it is true that nothing exists.' Let's think further about this. We first note that 'If nothing exists, then it is true that nothing…