Thread:User talk:Armondikov/black swan/reply (2)

The reason I found it so funny is that i'm very pragmatic in my personal philosophy and in my study of philosophy. I get soooo ticked when i'm reading something about language, and someone says (in that philo 101 way, or as said here, smartass way) "yes, but how do we know, that we know that a word means what it means". I want to slap them across the room. there are real issues we deal with in linguistics classes about meaning. dealing with the bs philo "but how do we KNOW what we know" is like (stolen from someone this week...) "trying to get a pot head to deal with the rent, when what he wants to talk about are the aliens invading the house".

The theory makes really good sense. And the 9-11 example is my biggest whine about our post trauma reaction. they won't hit an airplane next time. it will be the water systems. or it will be something in the air. or it will be a train in madrid. oh wait, it WAS a train in madrid.