From: blancw@pylon.com
To: jamesd@netcom.com
Message Hash: 691f79d3d553c1f387d1dcb8cf285945eb60c849fe2a040622c9916d46d8e7bf
Message ID: <199409050448.VAA28868@deepthought.pylon.com>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1994-09-05 04:48:11 UTC
Raw Date: Sun, 4 Sep 94 21:48:11 PDT
From: blancw@pylon.com
Date: Sun, 4 Sep 94 21:48:11 PDT
To: jamesd@netcom.com
Subject: Problems with Definitions in Escrow
Message-ID: <199409050448.VAA28868@deepthought.pylon.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Responding to msg by James A. Donald:
If you *define* reputations to be something formal and
explicit, and say that the system will work because
people guard their reputations, then reputations
become something that can be most efficiently granted
and withdrawn by some centralized authority.
. . . . . . . . . . .
I am complaining about dangerous carelessness in your
use and definition of words. Your use of the word
reputation is as fraught with frightful consequences
as Marx's use of the word "value".
.................................................................
....
Perhaps when you decry the establishment of 'definitions' you
mean that a concept should not be circumbscribed tightly within
the boundaries of a pre-determined range of meaning?
I thought what Hal intended by 'examining & defining' a term,
was simply to assess what it means to those who are seeking to
apply it, rather than intending to confine it in advance of any
real knowledge of its actual reference.
Blanc
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1994-09-05 (Sun, 4 Sep 94 21:48:11 PDT) - Problems with Definitions in Escrow - blancw@pylon.com