[Buddha-l] Re: flat earth?

[curt]

Jim Peavler wrote:
>
> On May 16, 2007, at 11:10 AM, curt wrote:
>
>> Which begs the question of what he based his assertion on in the 
>> first place.
>
> I am sure you meant to say "raises the question" or something.  
> "Begging the question" is a logical fallacy, (petitio principii), in 
> which the statement to be proved is assumed in one or more of the 
> premises. Kind of a classic is: "Of course the Bible is true; it is 
> God's word!"

Yes - I appear to be guilty of using the phrase in the way it is 
normally used, which appears to not be the way in which it was 
originally used. Which begs the question of when does a "language 
mistake" become just another example of "language change". One criterion 
for telling the difference is that "mistakes" that don't catch-on are 
just mistakes, but "mistakes" that everyone makes eventually become 
recognized as changes to the language. Note how this is different from a 
mistake like, to pick a random example, claiming that everyone thought 
the earth was flat before Columbus.  No matter how many times you repeat 
that kind of mistake it remains wrong. But language (at least spoken 
language) has the bizarre property that once a mistake is made with 
sufficient frequency it stops being a mistake. Unless I am mistaken 
about all of this - my linguistics is very rusty - maybe they've changed 
the rules or I no longer remember them right.

>
> Modern journalists seem to have robbed the phrase of any meaning by 
> using it, as you did here. Therefore, I do not have to accept your 
> idea that the world is round because you are a person to uses logical 
> fallacies.
>
All humans are fallible. Curt is human. Therefore Curt must die.

- Curt