Re: Common ancestor between man and ape

In article <uranium-1181762352.197659.178440@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
UC <uraniumcommittee@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 13, 2:11 pm, b...@xxxxxxxxx (Robert Grumbine) wrote:
In article <f4p8p4$g0...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,

Alan Morgan <amor...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article <uranium-1181749721.841340.161...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
UC <uraniumcommitteechair...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[snip]

You misunderstand that the word 'ape' ALREADY HAS a distinct, long-
standing erefrence to ANIMALS, not human beings. Whether we as humans
are closely related to the apes has no effect whatsoever on the
meaning of 'ape', and it is disingenuous to act as though it does. It
is simply stupidity in its most egregious form.

And "work" already has a distinct, long-standing reference to what I
do from 9-5 Monday through Friday, "mouse" has a distinct, long-
standing reference to furry things that go *squeak*, and "genetic"
has a distinct long-standing reference to DNA and yet physicsts,
people who use computers, and linguists have their own meanings for
these words and you don't seem to throw a fit over that.

And glory to you.

I do realize that if we didn't like to argue, we wouldn't be
posting here. And beating dead equids, or the space where
someone thinks an equid once was, is how we get our exercise.

But, really now. UC has long since proven that it is not
interested in communication, and incapable of learning (at
least not of learning anything anyone here is attempting to
teach).

UC is simply Humpty Dumpty incarnate.

No, precisely the opposite. Read Carroll again.

Precisely Humpty, but with a dictator complex. Words are
to mean exactly what you want them to mean, no more, no less.
It's simply a matter that you're to be in charge.

If the dictionary lists multiple meanings, then we're only to
use the one that you say we may. If professional usage is clearly
something, then we're supposed to stop using it that way if you say
so. If common usage includes a meaning you don't like, then common
usage is to change on your say so. And never, on your say so,
may meanings change.

Reality about
definitions of words, how they change, how people communicate,
etc., is entirely irrelevant to Humpty Dumpty. At some
point, doesn't someone pointing to an object whose emission
is strongly peaked at 700 nm and calling it orange become
something to chalk off to 'that's what the person thinks and
is immovably ignorant on the point'?

(n.b. 700 is firmly in the red, orange is ca. 585-620)
--
Robert Grumbine http://www.radix.net/~bobg/ Science faqs and amateur activities notes and links.
Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too much
evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than they
would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New Sciences

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Common ancestor between man and ape
    ... 'scientific' usage (that is, they would include baboons and other ... lesser apes and 'monkeys'), and that the overwhelmingly vast majority ... think of humans when the word "apes" is used, ... the meanings of the word 'men' and apes'. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Common ancestor between man and ape
    ... enriched this group when s/he wrote: ... been considered possible to refer to humans as 'apes' except as ... meanings of words to accomodate new knowledge. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Re: Common ancestor between man and ape
    ... known as the "great apes". ... insistence that meanings of words cannot change and those meanings can ... English language here in North America and the next day they all started ... spider should NEVER be called an insect. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Common ancestor between man and ape
    ... known as the "great apes". ... insistence that meanings of words cannot change and those meanings can ... English language here in North America and the next day they all started ... spider should NEVER be called an insect. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Chez Watt Re: Common ancestor between man and ape
    ... apotheosis of dogmatism and arrogance! ... the authority to instruct others on the meanings of words when they ... that vernacular terms should 'align' with changes in taxonomic or ... 'Apes' are not human. ...
    (talk.origins)