Fair ... Thank you, Pat. (01)
(I'm only changing the subject line so that we can spot this thread
more easily sometime down the road.) (02)
=ppy
-- (03)
On Jan 16, 2008 11:29 AM, Pat Hayes <phayes@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> Allow me try to make my position on "context" clear.
>
>
> I'm not wanting to deny that the word is useful, perhaps essential. I use it
> myself.
>
>
> I'm not wanting to deny that many useful notions exist, all of which can be
> justifiably referred to by the term "context" in some, er, context.
>
>
> I'm not wanting to say, of anyone's particular notion of 'context', that is
> useless or should not be discussed (though see the last paragraph below).
>
>
> My point is only that the various things called "context" vary so widely
> that they have nothing in common. Hence, I do want to make a stand against
> any claim that there is any useful general theory of contexts. or generally
> useful (single) 'logic' of contexts, or that calling something a context is
> saying anything much beyond the informal English meaning of the word. Put
> another way, contexts are not a natural kind. Put another way, there is no
> science of contexts, or single useful definition of contexts. Nor should we
> expect that a group of any size is likely to agree on a single definition
> acceptable to all its members.
>
>
> Since what various people mean by, and are thinking of when they use, the
> word "context" are almost as various as the people themselves, there is in
> such discussions a greatly increased danger of mutual misunderstanding; and
> this is why I always ask people who use the word, to indicate as clearly as
> they can what they mean by it, if possible to give us a definition of what
> they mean by it. This at least should enable discussions to get to a useful
> level of focus, instead of repeating the (now often repeated) history of
> extended discussions turning into debates turning, in some cases, into
> intellectual warfare; all of which, it is eventually discovered, has been a
> complete waste of time since what one side meant by the word was nothing at
> all to do with what the other side meant.
>
>
> My own view is that we would all do a lot better to avoid using the word
> altogether in any technical discussion, since such usage will only
> accurately model a restricted class of the 'natural' usages of the term, and
> so will always be misleading to many users: and moreover, in every case I
> have seen, there is already a more precise and accurate term for that
> particular case. Calling time-intervals "temporal contexts" and beliefs
> "psychological contexts" and common grounds "conversational contexts" and so
> on does not advance our understanding or our science, and serves only to
> create muddle and misunderstanding where we once had the beginnings of
> clarity. Hence I have a tendency, when folk insist on using the 'context'
> word, to constantly ask why it would be incorrect to call these by their
> more mundane (and, in several senses, context-free) names.
>
>
> Pat
>
>
>
> --
>
>
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> (04)
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