Sunday, February 7, 2010

Sesquipedanialism

To what extent a fallacious arguer is "arguing"?
Should we restrict "arguing" or "reasoning" to
"good" samples?
(cfr Luciano Fioridi on information).
I don't think so!

I would use Grice's word "aspect".
There is a good aspect (positively valued) of reasoning, and
There is a bad aspect (negatively valued),

where - within the latter - I would distinguish betweeen

1. fallacy (Griceanly UNINTENTIONAL)
(nobody wants to commit a mistake intentionally)

2. SOPHISM (Griceanly intentional)
qua figure of SPEECH, or rather
STRATEGEM

i.e. a rational strategy
intented NOT to be recognised by
one's co-conversationalist.

I title all this "Sesquipedanialism" after my mentor in this area, DV Druff.
The idea is that you have to use a technical name to label a fallacy so that
it comes to existence (My point being to what extent knowing what TYPE of
fallacy/sophism one is indulging in helps clarify the matter).


ad vericundiam,
ad baculum,
propter,
hominem,
lapidem,
misericordiam,
mulierem,
non causa pro causa,
intra dictionem, etc...
at

4 comments:

  1. Lawrence J. KramerFebruary 7, 2010 at 10:02 PM

    OK I'll bite. For "sesquipedanialism" to make sense, the D in D.V. Druff would have to stand for "Dan." Dan Druff was your mentor? That flake?

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  2. Luigi SperanzaFebruary 8, 2010 at 4:27 AM

    Oops. I was never so witty. It was merely a typo for "sesquipedalianism", now a new entry. Sorry, D. V. Druff!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lawrence J. KramerFebruary 8, 2010 at 5:35 AM

    The mistake is easy to make. You were probably thinking of Sesquipedaniel, the porn star with the foot-and-a-half long impregnatorial instrument.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Luigi SperanzaFebruary 8, 2010 at 5:50 AM

    You think. Arnold Zwicky, who has a porn story on the internet somewhere, and coined his "uninvited inferences" with Geiss -- which I rebutted in "The Uninvited Implicature" -- has examined the law behind:

    Wystan Arenales

    -- the name of my pet and the name of my street.

    He has studied male porn star names. He thinks that:

    -- First, porn-writers are WITTY: there is NOT one single porn film which has a literal title to it. They all _implicate_: they have resonances that go beyond the erection. They are meant for enjoyment of the _intellect_.

    -- The names are usually 'artistic', as Sesquipedaniel.Unless you are saying that was his _Christian_ name?

    ReplyDelete