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Philosophy |
I. A significant aspect of the import of language
in everyday life is recognizing that language is used for both
literal and emotional communication. Words have both a literal
meaning and an emotional impact. |
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A. Words with emotive significance or
emotive meaning are slanted positively or negatively. Consider the
following three observations of little Mary's room. |
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1. "Little Mary's room is a pigsty." |
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2. "Little Mary's room is untidy." |
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3. "Little Mary's belongings are strewn
about the room in gay profusion." |
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B. All three examples exhibit a similar literal
significance but differ greatly in emotive significance (i.e.,
slanting). Several features of this example should be noted. |
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1. Almost any state of affairs, no matter how
unfortunate, can be put in a positive or negative light without
changing the factual significance of what is said. |
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a. Thus, the technique of changing the emotive significance has a great effect on shaping the attitudes of others and is sometimes used for manipulation and persuasion. |
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b. The number of ways we can communicate the same state of affairs is limited to some extent by the richness of the language we use and our facility of that language. |
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c. The larger arena of the study of shaping the
attitudes of other people through language is called, "rhetoric
and persuasion" and includes many different techniques,
including informal fallacies. |
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2. Slanting or emotive significance is a matter of
degree and not of kind. Often the emotive significance of words or
phrases differs from place and time to time. |
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a. Consider the use of the words "sack or bag," "bucket or pail," or "tennis shoes or sneakers" in different parts of the United States. |
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b. Compare the use of the word "virtue" today with its use in the 1800’s. |
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c. Persons disagree to some extent about the
degree of positive and negative emotive significance. For our
purposes, we will try to use only examples here where there is
widespread intersubjective agreement. |
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C. When the statement of one person is positively
slanted and the statement of another person is negatively slanted,
the persons disagree in attitude. In other words, there is an
emotional difference between the disputants. |
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1. For the introductory purposes of this course, we shall also say that if one statement is neutral and another statement is positive (or negative), we shall say that there is a disagreement in attitude. |
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2. Once we work through some simple examples, our techniques can become more sophisticated. |
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3. Generally disagreements in attitude come about
by our approval or disapproval about the matter at issue. |
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D. When statements have a different literal
significance or a different denotative significance, there is a disagreement
in belief. A disagreement in belief is a disagreement about the
facts of the matter. |
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1. It is very helpful, although not technically
correct, to think of a disagreement in belief as a factual
disagreement. (Strictly speaking, there cannot be a factual
disagreement since there seems to be no consistent use for the terms
"false" or "negative facts.") |
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2. In general, a good way to distinguish the
attitude component from the belief component is to ask if the
statement can be, in principle, falsified in some observable manner.
Other examples are not quite so easily distinguished. |
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a. In the example above concerning little Mary’s room, all three statements could be taken to confirm the same state of affairs. |
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b. We would know how to falsify all three statements about little Mary’s room even though there might be some vagueness present concerning the question, "At what point of disarray does little Mary’s room become ‘untidy’?" |
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c. For now, we acknowledge that language is, in
principle, vague and ambiguous. When that difference makes a
difference, we can clear up the vagueness and ambiguity by stipulative
or precising definitions
of the terms we use. Operational
definitions are often helpful in more rigorous fields of study
for resolving disputes. |
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II. Let’s look at a
simple example of the kinds of agreement and disagreement that can
arise over disputes about facts or events and feelings about the
facts or events. The analysis of this example will be summarized
after we suggest a method to analyze the varieties of agreement and
disagreement. |
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A. Consider the following four situations
concerning "The Distance to
the Sun." |
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Situation 1 |
Mr. Smith |
The sun is incredibly far from the earth; it’s 60 million miles away. |
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Ms. Smith |
Yes, the sun is extremely far from the earth, but it’s 90 million miles away. |
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Situation 2 |
Mr. Jones |
The sun is not so far; it’s only 93 million miles away. |
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Ms. Jones |
The sun is, indeed, very far since it’s 93 million miles away. |
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Situation 3 |
Mr. Baker |
The sun is very far since it’s 90 million miles away. |
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Ms. Baker |
Yes that is very far, indeed. |
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Situation 4 |
Mr. Cade |
The sun is really very close to earth, only 60 million miles. |
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Ms. Cade |
No, the sun is incredibly far away; it’s over 93 million miles from earth. |
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B. Although these disputes are straightforwardly
analyzed, the following rules of thumb are useful to analyze
more difficult cases and so will be used here. |
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1. Find the fact at issue:
Establish the fact at issue as a question in emotively neutral
language without using the exact language of either disputant. |
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a. When the parties agree in belief, the fact at issue will be trivial. |
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b. The exact wording of either party should be avoided in our posed question. |
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c. In every disagreement in belief, there are some
facts agreed upon—these are not the facts at issue. For example,
in the above situations, all parties agree the sun is some distance
away from the earth; obviously, this fact is not at issue. |
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2. Determine each person’s
emotive significance toward the fact at issue: The
emotive significance toward subsidiary issues is not directly
relevant to establishing a disagreement in attitude. |
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a. The emotive significance can be established by restating, in neutral terms, what each person said. Next, the two statements can be compared. |
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b. Consider the following case: |
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John: The little tyke swung the bat heartily at the vicious dog. |
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Mary: The little monster
hit that poor puppy on the head. |
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c. Since the fact at issue is "Did the child
hit the dog?," John’s attitude would be classed as positive
and Mary’s would be negative toward the fact at issue (not their
attitude toward the dog). |
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3. Determine the agreement
or disagreement in belief: Compare what each person said with
the fact-at-issue (stated as a question) in order to determine
whether the parties agree or disagree in belief. |
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a. If there is no explicit evidence that the parties disagree over the facts, then one should not assume there is a disagreement. |
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b. For example, as an answer to the question,
"Did the child hit the dog?," there is no evidence from
these above statements John and Mary disagree. |
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4. Determine the agreement
or disagreement in attitude: Compare the emotive significance
of the disputants in order to establish any disagreement in
attitude. |
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5. Attempt to resolve the
dispute in accordance with the kind of dispute it is. |
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a. If there is a disagreement in belief, then use the methods of finding the facts in a mutually agreeable manner: authority, science, or observation. |
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b. If there is a disagreement in attitude, then the methods of rhetoric and persuasion might be helpful. This variety of disagreement is the most difficult to resolve. |
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c. If there is a disagreement in both attitude and
belief, then resolve the disagreement in belief first. |
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(1) Finding the facts might help shape a change in attitude, since one or both of the parties might have been basing the attitude on what they believed. |
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(2) If the discovery of the facts do not bring the
parties to agreement in attitude, then various methods of rhetoric
and persuasion can be tried. |
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III. Analysis of
“The
Distance to the Sun” examples. These examples exhibit the
four possible kinds of agreement and disagreement in belief and
attitude. |
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Belief |
Attitude |
How the Dispute Might Be Resolved |
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Situation 1 |
Disagree (90 mm vs. 60 mm) |
Agree ("incredibly" and "extremely") |
Find the facts: use a reference book, an authority, or do an experiment to determine the fact at issue. |
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Situation 2 |
Agree |
Disagree ("not so far" and "very far") |
Use rhetoric and persuasion, comparative arguments, relative terms. |
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Situation 3 |
Agree |
Agree |
No resolution necessary. |
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Situation 4 |
Disagree (60 mm vs. 90 mm) |
Disagree ("very close" vs. very far") |
(1) Find the facts. |
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