With respect to sociopaths, I mostly agree that knowing that someone is a sociopath pretty much precludes my being able to engage with them without fear of being exploited. (It doesn’t preclude my ability to respect them, or to consider the ends they seek worth seeking, or to trust them in certain ways.)
With respect to the meaning of “like”, I frequently find myself liking people on brief acquaintance, long before I know very much about them, their character, what ends they seek, or their trustworthiness in any particular context. And it’s not uncommon for me to lose respect for someone I like while continuing to like them.
As far as I can tell from observation, other people frequently have similar experiences, and frequently use the word “like” to refer to those experiences, much as I do. So I’m fairly confident that it’s the usage you describe here that’s nonstandard. But I could be wrong, or it might be a regional/subcultural thing.
For example, if a friend says “I met George at a party last night; I liked him” do you really understand your friend to mean that they know enough about George to make a reliable judgment about George’s character and whether it merits respect, what ends George seeks and whether those ends are worth seeking, and George’s trustworthiness? I would not understand them to mean that at all.
With respect to sociopaths, I mostly agree that knowing that someone is a sociopath pretty much precludes my being able to engage with them without fear of being exploited. (It doesn’t preclude my ability to respect them, or to consider the ends they seek worth seeking, or to trust them in certain ways.)
With respect to the meaning of “like”, I frequently find myself liking people on brief acquaintance, long before I know very much about them, their character, what ends they seek, or their trustworthiness in any particular context. And it’s not uncommon for me to lose respect for someone I like while continuing to like them.
As far as I can tell from observation, other people frequently have similar experiences, and frequently use the word “like” to refer to those experiences, much as I do. So I’m fairly confident that it’s the usage you describe here that’s nonstandard. But I could be wrong, or it might be a regional/subcultural thing.
For example, if a friend says “I met George at a party last night; I liked him” do you really understand your friend to mean that they know enough about George to make a reliable judgment about George’s character and whether it merits respect, what ends George seeks and whether those ends are worth seeking, and George’s trustworthiness? I would not understand them to mean that at all.