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#76598 07/20/02 08:46 PM
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wwh Offline OP
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I think we had a discussion of "skeptic" about six months ago, but I couldn't find it
when I searched for it.
But perhaps it would interest enough newcomers to justify repetition.
I just got around to reading Scientific American for April, which has an article
entitled:Skepticism as a Virtue, by Michael Shermer, who has a website named
www.skeptic.com He first quotes Pope's Essay on Man:


Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A Being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest,
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast,
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err.

Then he quotes Stephen J. Gould:

To my considerable chagrin, it was five years into the editing and publishing of Skeptic
magazine before I realized I had never bothered to define the word or even examined
how others had used it. Then Stephen Jay Gould, in the foreword to my book
Why People Believe Weird Things, mentioned that it comes from the Greek skeptikos,
for "thoughtful." Etymologically, in fact, its Latin derivative is scepticus, for "inquiring"
or "reflective." Further variations in the ancient Greek include "watchman" or "mark
to aim at." Hence,skepticism is thoughtful and reflective inquiry. To be skeptical
is to aim toward a goal of critical thinking.

Skeptics are the watchmen of reasoning errors, the Ralph Naders of bad ideas.

Here is URL to Scientific American article: http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z12E51F41




#76599 07/20/02 10:19 PM
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Thank you, Dr. Bill. This erases my errorical perception that skeptical meant doubt, or questioning, so strong that it was edged right up against outright disbelief. Just as I used to think that the word criticism automatically meant a negative pronouncement, when in fact it can mean assessment that is either positive or negative.


#76600 07/21/02 01:24 AM
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I used to think that the word criticism automatically meant a negative pronouncement, when in fact it can mean assessment that is either positive or negative

Yes, timely reminders of true meanings, Jackie & Bill.

Only problem is where the true meanings have been supplanted by excessive usage in (for instance) a negative context.

It's a bit like decimate, where the commonly-accepted meaning (and usage) is sigificantly different to the true meaning of "reduce by a tenth". These days (over the last 10 years) the original meaning has been relegated to a second-rate alternative in most dictionaries.


#76601 07/21/02 03:22 AM
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>It's a bit like decimate, where the commonly-accepted meaning (and usage) is sigificantly different to the true meaning of "reduce by a tenth". These days (over the last 10 years) the original meaning has been relegated to a second-rate alternative in most dictionaries.



Oh, please! I may be only a stranger here, but even I know that the OED shows citations using the currently-accepted definition of decimate as far back as the 1830s. The change is hardly a recent phenomenon, and if anyone is going to complain about the shift in meaning of decimate, I will feel compelled to introduce that one to a nice woman I know. Shift happens people, get over it.


#76602 07/21/02 08:11 PM
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Dere's a link to May Scientific American, to an article containing a quote from Carl Sagan:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?P1B221151

I don't know why, but this isn't clickable, but does work with edit,copy,,,edit,paste into Location box.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?P1B221151


#76603 07/21/02 08:41 PM
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Dr Bill,
Did you remember to put [url ] before the link and [/url ] (without the space on both) after it?

http://makeashorterlink.com/?P1B221151


#76604 07/21/02 09:39 PM
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I may be only a stranger here

but never was a stranger more welcome! Pull up a chair and sit down with us, and decimate the old mates with your gentle wit ;)


#76605 07/22/02 12:25 AM
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Welcome, sjm. Glad to see you aboard.


#76606 07/22/02 10:15 AM
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I was a subscriber to Skeptical Inquirer since my early years of college. Sometimes I would forego buying textbooks. I never skipped SI, though, if there were any way I could afford it. For a while I subscribed to SI and Skeptic magazine and I thihnk I prefer Skeptic magazine.

In recent years I had become skeptical of the skeptics and Skeptic magazine seemed to be a little less nasty in tone that SI. I much prefer it.

k



#76607 07/22/02 10:15 AM
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and decimate the old mates with your gentle wit

Yeah, I can take it on the chin, mate! oooooff


Fair enough, sjm, that was a slightly unfortunate example and my timing may have been out by 170 years or so..

But meanings do change through commonplace "incorrect" usage, and this can make etymology - and older dictionary definitions - pretty worthless. I'm not saying that's a bad thing; it just proves that language is alive, and you can't necessarily establish meanings through written references alone.

It particularly interests me that values get ascribed to certain words that started off valueless. pagan and heathen spring instantly to mind.

"Critical appreciation" is almost an oxymoron.

But etymologies excepted, Skepticism is very close to formalised incredulity - so "skeptical belief" would be an oxymoron.

And somebody who believed whatever you told them would, of course, be an antisceptic.





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