User talk:KYPark/1975

Hilary Putnam
The flat earth was all that ancient people had in mind. They exactly meant it by earth. Categories or meanings just ain't in the world, but in the head, in the mind, or, more precisely, in the body that is "being in the world." The frame of reference is rather human than divine, as to err is human and to forgive is divine.

Men think and speak of God and angels, Satan and dragons, true or false, regardless of their physical composition! Animals at large do so of something good or bad rather than true or false, right or wrong. Science, as well as conscience, is too great a luxury for most of them to live by.

Strictly or chemically speaking, H2O on Earth is different from XYZ on Twin Earth. In other respects, however, both may be equivalent enough to share the same name water neatly without causing any trouble in everyday life.

Preciseness of words should not be maximally pursued but optimally balanced by conciseness. To live best is not always to live most precisely or scientifically.

Yet your sense of precision from time to time may ask you to articulate like water-H2O vs. water-XYZ instead of just water in common. In fact, men keep going up and down the abstraction ladder, say, up to water in common down to water-H2O or water-XYZ in particular.

Nevertheless, the word water may better be included in something like Charles Ogden's Basic English to be maximally used between Earth and Twin Earth, in each of which it may make somewhat different sense but make little difference for most practical purposes. It would be foolish to say too precisely. For example, it may be less plausible to say "Give me some water-H2O on Earth and water-XYZ on Twin Earth" than just to say "Give me some water" anywhere.

--KYPark (talk) 16:35, 8 September 2008 (UTC)