Clipmarks | carrerinyes's 'words' clips

The Analytic/Synthetic Distinction

Tue, 13 May 2008 23:15:41 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes
clipper's remarks: Synthetic statements are not necessary. Philosophers use the word contingent to describe something that is not necessary. It is not necessarily true that you are reading this webpage: you could be reading a printout, for example.

It is important to make the analytic/synthetic distinction in argument. If you try to argue that something is true you need to be clear about whether you are saying something about the empirical world, or whether you are clarifying the meanings of words. It would do you no good for example to hunt for a bachelor who was married to try and refute the statement. It would be no help to you to try and find a "good murder" to refute the statement that all murder is bad, because murder is by definition bad.

Clip Source: www.philosopher.org.uk

The analytic/synthetic distinction

Some statements we judge to be true or false in relation to facts in the world, for example that you are now in reading this book. That you are reading this book is called by philosophers a synthetic truth.

Other statements we judge to be true due to the meanings of the words involved. We can know that the sentence "All bachelors are unmarried." is true without having to do a survey of bachelors, because the sentence is true by definition. It is an analytic truth.

Synthetic truths are "truths of fact" and analytic truths are "truths of reason". We use empirical methods to verify synthetic statements and rationalist methods to verify analytic statements.

Kant was the first to use the terms Synthetic and Analytic. He pointed out that all analytic truths are necessary, that is, they could not have been otherwise. If you agree that the definition of a bachelor is an unmarried man, then it stands to reason that all bachelors are unmarried.

Classic Quotes: Florence Nightengale

Mon, 12 May 2008 21:39:11 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes

Clip Source: www.arcamax.com

Classic Quotes by Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) English nurse

How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.

I have lived and slept in the same bed with English countesses and Prussian farm women... no woman has excited passions among women more than I have.

Clip Source: www.arcamax.com

I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results.

So never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself.

The martyr sacrifices themselves entirely in vain. Or rather not in vain; for they make the selfish more selfish, the lazy more lazy, the narrow narrower.

It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a hospital that it should do the sick no harm.

Fatal Idiom Shortage Leaves Nation....

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 06:19:46 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes

Clip Source: www.theonion.com

Idiom Shortage Leaves Nation All Sewed Up In Horse Pies

WASHINGTON—A crippling idiom shortage that has left millions of Americans struggling to express themselves spread like tugboat hens throughout the U.S. mainland Tuesday in an unparalleled lingual crisis that now has the entire country six winks short of an icicle.

Since beginning two weeks ago, the deficit in these vernacular phrases has affected nearly every English speaker on the continent, making it virtually impossible to communicate symbolic ideas through a series of words that do not individually share the same meaning as the group of words as a whole. In what many are calling a cast-iron piano tune unlike any on record, idiomatic expression has been devastated nationwide.

"This is an absolute oyster carnival," said Harvard University linguistics professor Dr. Howard Albright, who noted that the 2008 idiom shortage has been the country's worst. "I don't know any other way to describe it."

For The Love Of Words...

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:25:49 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes

Clip Source: www.writinghood.com

For the Love of Words: Seven Wonderful Websites Where Words Matter

Words are beautiful, and these seven wonderful word websites illustrate the reason why they are.

For passionate writers around the world, choosing the right words to communicate are more than just clever wordplay, it's an obsession. Wordsmiths who routinely exercise their extraordinary vocabulary are continually positioned to learn new words, thus making them outstanding communicators.

Word Spy

Devoted to lexpionage, “The sleuthing of new words and phrases”.

Write Express

Confusing Words

The English language is one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world and here at Confusing Words the reason why is apparent. Confusing Words is a collection of 3210 words that sound alike, but are spelled and used differently. A great website for both readers and writers to learn the difference and stop being a confused word victim.

Virtual Salt

100 Words

101 Words

Wordie

Poet - Johnnie Douglas-Pennant

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:55:57 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Despite suffering from dyspraxia, poetry was helping Johnnie Douglas-Pennant to cope with his sister's death from cystic fibrosis. Then he died in a tragic accident, his mother tells Cassandra Jardine

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

"He didn't read poetry," his mother says, "but he wrote the most wonderful poems. He used to give them to people as presents. Sometimes he would do several versions, and make drawings to go with them."

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

With his poems, letters and illustrations interleaved with memories from those who loved him, Johnnie emerges as a child with rare powers of observation, an affinity with nature and an emotional maturity beyond his years. Many of his poems show him struggling to come to terms with the loss of his sister, but their universal resonance comes from his gift for condensing feelings into words and images.

Aged eight, he memorably described white as "the colour of falling"

The poignancy of his thoughts is all the more touching when read in his childish handwriting, complete with atrocious spelling

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Squashed Philosphers

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 03:31:55 GMT

clipped by: Tahnie
clipper's remarks: information

Clip Source: www.btinternet.com

Glyn Hughes'
SQUASHED PHILOSOPHERS
THE books which defined the way The West thinks now...
In their own words... but condensed and abridged into something like readable

Words Without Borders

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:16:30 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad
clipper's remarks: A chance to read English translations of authors from around the world.

Intriguing methinks.

Clip Source: www.wordswithoutborders.org

January 2008

Vice and virtue clash daily round the world, and while the definition of sin may vary, its literary allure is universal. Perhaps that’s because no matter how easy we think moral failings are to finger, in actuality their elusiveness on the page is what makes for the stuff of great literature. “It’s so easy to forget . . . ” says a former student of an envious teacher; yet do moral failings arise because it’s easy to forget, or because it’s even easier to harbor and remember? Maya Arad, Roberto Bolaño, Lars Saabye Christensen, Doris Kareva, Danilo Kiš , Mathieu Lindon, Sérgio Rodrigues, Kjell Westo, and Yan Lianke put envy, greed, pride, sloth, gluttony, anger, and lust to thought-provoking ends for the New Year.

NEW ON THE BOOKSHELF

This month, there's solace in words at Dorothea Dieckmann's Guantanamo, allusions fill Aharon Megged's The Flying Camel and the Golden Hump and Eastern Europe writhes under capitalism in Andrzej Stasiuk's Nine.

Fun With Words

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:38:04 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www.rinkworks.com

Contronyms

A synonym is a word that means the same as another. "Necessary" and "required" are synonyms. An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another. "Wet" and "dry" are antonyms. While synonyms and antonyms are not in themselves interesting, the complexities and irregularities of the English language sometimes make synonyms and antonyms interesting to explore. Many complexities result from words having multiple definitions. A trivial example is a word with synonyms that aren't synonyms of each other, the word "beam," for example, having the synonyms "bar" and "shine." Similarly, some words have antonyms that are neither synonyms nor antonyms of each other but completely unrelated: the word "right," for example, having the antonyms "wrong" and "left."

Signs You've Been Online Too Long

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:24:26 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes

Clip Source: www.area51newmexico.com

Signs To Tell You've Been Online Too Long

1. Tech Support calls "YOU" for help.

2. Someone at work tells you a joke and you say "LOL".

3. You watch TV with the closed captioning turned on.

4. You have called out someone's screen name while making love to your significant other.

5. You keep begging your friends to get an account so "we can hang out".

6. Three words: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Dalai Lama Is Not A Call Girl

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:29:35 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Dalai Lama "is not a call girl"

OTTAWA (Reuters) - When Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried to explain in a year-end interview why he'd met the Dalai Lama in his Ottawa office, it was clear he wanted to show respect for the exiled Tibetan leader.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite come out that way.

"I met the Dalai Lama in my office but I meet everyone in my office. I don't know why I would sneak off to a hotel room just to meet the Dalai Lama. You know, he's not a call girl," Harper told OMNI television.

He quickly added: "As I say, he's a respected international spiritual leader."

Harper is a strong critic of China's human rights record and what he calls the "undemocratic regime" in Beijing.

Harper's chief spokeswoman did not respond to a query as to whether the prime minister regretted his choice of words in the interview, which took place on Tuesday but was embargoed until Thursday.

You say potato.....

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:55:37 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes
clipper's remarks: Search any word or phrase for it's origins. Word lovers will love the Resources page with links to hundreds of dictionaries and fun stuff.

Clip Source: www.wordorigins.org

An avid reader emailed me with a supposed acronymic origin of spud. The reader rightly was skeptical, but had found the reference in Mario Pei’s 1949 The Story of Language. Pei writes, “the potato, for its part, was in disrepute some centuries ago. Some Englishmen who did not fancy potatoes formed a Society for the Prevention of Unwholesome Diet. The initials of the main words in this title gave rise to spud.” Like all other pre-20th century acronymic origins, this one is false. This just goes to show you, that even language professionals can get taken in sometimes.

Ambigram.Matic

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:48:54 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes
clipper's remarks: Type in your word then click go to get an instant ambigram! Note: hitting enter won't do it. Da Vinci Code fans unite!

Clip Source: ambigram.matic.com

Welcome to Ambigram.Matic!

Tags: words

Wordsmith

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 12:59:49 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes
clipper's remarks: My favourite daily email, get a word a day in your in box. Try the anagram server!

Clip Source: wordsmith.org

Tags: words

The etymology and history of our first names

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 01:52:50 GMT

clipped by: astronkyttaron
clipper's remarks: I wonder if my parents knew any of this :--)

Clip Source: www.behindthename.com

the etymology and history of first names

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