There was a (tiny) movement about 20 years ago to get people to stop using the word “is”. Usually, an “is” renders a judgement while concealing the reasons: “Cindy is sweet. The GPL is stupid and destructive.”
I think I can make as good a case for banning “is” as for banning “rationality”. And if we should ban “is”, what shouldn’t we ban? Can you name any words that shouldn’t be banned?
There was a (tiny) movement about 20 years ago to get people to stop using the word “is”. Usually, an “is” renders a judgement while concealing the reasons: “Cindy is sweet. The GPL is stupid and destructive.”
I think I can make as good a case for banning “is” as for banning “rationality”. And if we should ban “is”, what shouldn’t we ban? Can you name any words that shouldn’t be banned?
I find your arguments a bit muddled and confusing: I can make as good a case for banning genocide as I can for banning pleasure (e.g. by making a very poor case in both cases). That doesn’t mean I’ve established that either one should be banned; nor does it mean that I’ve established that they are equally “ban-worthy”; nor have I established that the reasons for banning one are in any way related with the reasons for banning the other.
It seems like your arguments for banning “is” is that it could be used to “renders a judgement while concealing the reasons”. But if people think it’s appropriate to render judgment without concealing reasons, then there’s no reason to ban “is”, correct?
Contrast this with the argument for banning “rational” in that people here are using it to mean different thing, and we’re having a lot of confusion due to not knowing which meaning is intended.
Even if we accept that both arguments are equally logically sound, we might choose to ban one without banning the other based on our values (e.g. if we very highly value the non-concealing of reasons, but don’t value lack of confusion, we may choose to ban “is” without banning “rational”).
There was a (tiny) movement about 20 years ago to get people to stop using the word “is”. Usually, an “is” renders a judgement while concealing the reasons: “Cindy is sweet. The GPL is stupid and destructive.”
I think I can make as good a case for banning “is” as for banning “rationality”. And if we should ban “is”, what shouldn’t we ban? Can you name any words that shouldn’t be banned?
Maybe we should just point.
For more on this sort of thing, see E-Prime.
I find your arguments a bit muddled and confusing: I can make as good a case for banning genocide as I can for banning pleasure (e.g. by making a very poor case in both cases). That doesn’t mean I’ve established that either one should be banned; nor does it mean that I’ve established that they are equally “ban-worthy”; nor have I established that the reasons for banning one are in any way related with the reasons for banning the other.
It seems like your arguments for banning “is” is that it could be used to “renders a judgement while concealing the reasons”. But if people think it’s appropriate to render judgment without concealing reasons, then there’s no reason to ban “is”, correct?
Contrast this with the argument for banning “rational” in that people here are using it to mean different thing, and we’re having a lot of confusion due to not knowing which meaning is intended.
Even if we accept that both arguments are equally logically sound, we might choose to ban one without banning the other based on our values (e.g. if we very highly value the non-concealing of reasons, but don’t value lack of confusion, we may choose to ban “is” without banning “rational”).