Just hold on a second, Cheerskep. One may refer to THE concept in a discussion of a particular concept. One does not need to acknowledge all concepts or remind the reader that A concept simply means one of many, each time an already identified concept is mentioned. Syntax is important. You're always playing sheriff on language and sometimes you go too far, being too pedantic among the roughhouse gang in the saloon. Put away your badge and have a sasprilila.
WC --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Chris is right to condemn this: > > "THE concept of.." rather than "A concept of.." > > > And Saul is right when he says, > > " There are other notions of authenticity such as > being true and > trustworthy,validated, genuine or that it > corresponds to a given model, or > is of a given period, or that it is what it > represents itself to be -" > > Whenever anyone talks of "THE concept of authentic" > or "THE meaning of > authentic" or "THE notion of authentic", you should > immediately get suspicious > about > the clarity of his thinking. > > The next step is to get suspicious whenever anyone > talks about "THE > concept/meaning/idea/notion" of ANYTHING. > > Most people are ready to concede that "notion", in > the sense of a fleeting > bit of consciousness, obtains only in a mind. > Granted, when I hear a given > word, > the notion that arises in my mind is likely to seem > near-identical to what > arose the last time I heard the word (though less > often than one might expect; > in my lifetime, the notion stirred by my hearing > 'Stalin', 'Enron', 'Muslim', > 'Islam', 'terrorism', 'cancer', 'liberal', 'Mel > Gibson', 'Supreme Court', > 'intelligence', and more has evolved a good deal). > > But there is something about our brains that tends > to "reify" a frequently > entertained notion, especially if we believe others > are entertaining the > "same" > notion. Thus 'a' concept becomes 'the' concept of > something. > > And so it is that, in a not-throught-through, fuzzy > way, we come think of > concepts and meanings as being extra-mental > entities. Discrete, stable words > -- > like 'authentic' -- are constant abetters to this > confusion. So when I say > 'authentic', I assume "THE meaning of" the word will > arise in your mind just > as it > was in my mind when I spoke. > > > > > > > > ************** > Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for > fuel-efficient used cars. > > (http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)
