Socrates had said that "The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being." One of the most prominent conclusions I have made upon taking this class is this same observation, modified slightly: "The unexamined word is not worth using."
What I mean by that is: I found I had been using certain words (not to be confused with uncertain words...) with an incomplete understanding of what I meant by them.
I was not necessarily using these words (typically those which describe abstract thoughts: Justice; volition; and good old truth, to name but a few) in an incorrect context, but for most of these words I was unable to come up with a solid definition of what I meant.
To be sure, taking the advice of this saying to extremes can be a little silly; an example of such ridiculousness may be found in this dialogue between Homer Simpson and Dr. Julius Hibbert, in which Homer denies any scientific phraseology (and eventually, even colloquialisms) as sufficient conversational material.
The positive consequence of incorporating the saying's instruction into our everyday behavior, though, is that it serves as a safeguard for acquiring words in this fashion and progressing no further in our understanding of them.
In summary: A bumper sticker idea.
Brilliant bumper sticker :D
ReplyDeleteI think it's been impressed upon me that I'm trying to more fully understand the meanings of words like the ones you mentioned, to try and understand if there's an absolute definition of these words or if they change with context (or if they have an absolute definition that fits with all contexts, if that even makes sense).