What is the rubric that marks the difference between a good semantic argument/point/question, and a bad semantic argument/point/question.
I would say there must be some rubric that marks the difference between “seeking clarity and understanding” and “seeking ambiguity and confusion”.
Sometimes it is the person saying “I would like to mention this other definition of the word” who is seeking clarity.
Sometimes it is the person saying “Oh, come on, you know what I mean.” who is seeking clarity.
And sometimes it’s not necessarily about facts… It’s about who get’s to decide what is proper, and what is not. In each of the examples, “chemicals in food”, “technology at the dinner table.” one can legitimately ask—what concerns you about the chemicals in the food? What concerns you about the technology at the dinner table?
For the chemicals in the food example, what is probably a concern that they must rely on their own knowledge to decide whether each of the ingredients in the package is safe, and a lack of trust in the systems government and business have worked out to assure that foods are safe. That’s actually a reasonable conversation to have, but not necessarily one you want to have before you leave the grocery store.
For “technology at the dinner table” one can probably reasonably assume that this is a question about propriety… Namely whether eating together at a dinner table constitutes a shared family experience, or if it is a multiplayer solitaire experience. Of course, one might note that the table and chairs are, in some sense, simple technology designed to support this shared family experience.
What is the rubric that marks the difference between a good semantic argument/point/question, and a bad semantic argument/point/question.
I would say there must be some rubric that marks the difference between “seeking clarity and understanding” and “seeking ambiguity and confusion”.
Sometimes it is the person saying “I would like to mention this other definition of the word” who is seeking clarity.
Sometimes it is the person saying “Oh, come on, you know what I mean.” who is seeking clarity.
And sometimes it’s not necessarily about facts… It’s about who get’s to decide what is proper, and what is not. In each of the examples, “chemicals in food”, “technology at the dinner table.” one can legitimately ask—what concerns you about the chemicals in the food? What concerns you about the technology at the dinner table?
For the chemicals in the food example, what is probably a concern that they must rely on their own knowledge to decide whether each of the ingredients in the package is safe, and a lack of trust in the systems government and business have worked out to assure that foods are safe. That’s actually a reasonable conversation to have, but not necessarily one you want to have before you leave the grocery store.
For “technology at the dinner table” one can probably reasonably assume that this is a question about propriety… Namely whether eating together at a dinner table constitutes a shared family experience, or if it is a multiplayer solitaire experience. Of course, one might note that the table and chairs are, in some sense, simple technology designed to support this shared family experience.