Kuhn, Quine & Chomsky...

[Guest guest]

Rory,

It's very quine of you to forward this.

 

Wainwright

 

 

 

 

-

" Rory Kerr " <rory.kerr

 

Monday, October 27, 2003 9:45 PM

Kuhn, Quine & Chomsky...

 

 

> Some of us may have felt recently that our study of Chinese

medicine

> had not prepared us well for the intellectual rigors of the Chinese

> Herb Academy. For those as perplexed as I was, here are some

> definitions of terms that may help -- or may not.

>

> kuhn, n. A fox often mistaken for a hedgehog; it is usually

attended

> by such a commotion that it appears more than twice as heavy as it

> really is.

>

> quine, v. (1) To deny resolutely the existence of importance of

> something real or significant. " Some philosophers have quined

> classes, and some have even quined physical objects. " Occasionally

> used intr., e.g., " You think I quine, sir. I assure you I do not! "

> (2) n. The total aggregate sensory surface of the world; hence

> quinitis, irritation of the quine.

>

> chomsky, adj. Said of a theory that draws extravagant metaphysical

> implications from scientifically established facts. " Essentially,

> Hume's criticism of the Argument from Design is that it leads in

all

> its forms to blatantly chomsky conclusions. " " The conclusions drawn

> from Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle are not only on average

> chomskier than those drawn from Godel's theorem; most of them are

> downright merleau-ponty. "

>

> merleau-ponty, adj. In the wrong order, with confused foundations,

> said of a theory; figurative synonyms are upside-down, topsy-turvy,

> front-to-back. " The sense-datum approach to certainty was all

> merleau-ponty in the first place. "

>

> All this comes from a most helpful online reference:

>

> http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/lexicon/