tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 21 10:12:35 1998
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Re: Problem Words
On Fri, 18 Dec 1998 21:09:51 -0800 (PST) David Trimboli
<[email protected]> wrote:
> From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
> >>From the Britannica Online:
> >
> > http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/434/46.html
> >
> > Ockham's razor
> > also spelled OCCAM'S RAZOR, also called LAW OF ECONOMY, or LAW OF
> > PARSIMONY, principle stated by William of Ockham (1285-1347/49),
> > a scholastic, that *non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter
> > necessitatem*; i.e., entities are not to be multiplied beyond
> > necessity.
>
> The compilers of the Brittanica Encyclopedia should consider amending this
> entry to include: "Most Americans who take an interest in science-fiction
> now tout an incomplete knowledge of Ockham's razor due to their viewing the
> truly awful movie "Contact" based on Carl Sagan's only somewhat awful book
> CONTACT (though his television series and book COSMOS were not awful at
> all). In fact, most of these Americans seem to think that they've always
> known about Ockham's razor and have applied it to other situations before,
> though this is certainly untrue.
yejHaDDaq *Philosophy* vIHaDpu'. *Ockham* 'etlh vIghovbej. If
you want to see the term misused, read Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance. It is a brilliant book, highly useful to
thinking people who feel, but he uses what he calls "Ockham's
razor" to classify things until he becomes so compulsive about
it that the white-coats take him away in a big, soft truck.
Then again, I read that book 20 years ago, so maybe I remember
it wrong...
> "See also 'T-Rex: popular perversion of Tyrannosaurus in layman's vocabulary
> by author Michael Crichton.'"
Or the way we now misuse "analog" (a noun) as an adjective to
mean anything that is not digital. An analog watch, for example
is not analog. There are no levels of anything which are acting
as an analog for anything else. Hands are moving and pointing.
That is not an analog. It is just an inaccurate retronym.
Or the way we misuse "consense" as a verb when it is not
actually a word at all. "Consent" is the verb. You don't drop
the "-us" off of "consensus" to make a verb out of the noun.
Or "orientate". The verb is "orient". We expanded that to
"orientation" to make it a noun, and people want to work from
the noun form and drop "-tion" from it to get "orientate". Do we
use the word "configurate?" That would be the same error.
Hacks mangle the language all the time. Why get heavy handed on
the movie industry?
And don't assume you are the only person who ever heard of
Ockham's Razor before Contact.
> Sorry for the completely off-topic message.
chaq vuDlIj junob DaneHchugh tlhIngan Hol Dalo'nIS.
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