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What’s the opposite of me, or you. The colour blue. Just because I disagree with your opinion doesn’t mean I’m immediately supporting the “opposite” opinion! Sad thing is that these can be highly educated people you’re debating with! —I Just Talk About Space Now
This article appears in Jun 14-20, 2012.
17 Comments
I too like space, it’s a very cool place.
People have a bad habit of seeing things in black and white, with no middle ground. There’s nothing worse then when someone tells you what your own opinion is.
I disagree with your opinion, captain and feel you are wrong ON EVERYTHING.
🙂
And that’s YOUR opinion. My opinion of myself is a little different…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIL8RM_IWNY
I get your meaning op…
here’s a little link you can pass on so they can get a clue
http://logic.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/main.htm
space is god, some of the bitchers on here are from the far reaches of said space.but don’t tell them that i told you this. they want to stay out of the limelight.
Yep, nope, maybe, maybe not and all points in between. That should about cover many debates.
THE CONTRAST THEORY OF MEANING
What is the meaning of meaning? What does it mean to mean something? Contrary to the poster’s view, there is a school of thought which adheres to the “contrast theory of meaning.” But what is the contrast theory of meaning?
Simply put, the contrast theory of meaning maintains that if something does not have an opposite then it has no meaning. The standard example is, “An apple is an apple because it isn’t an orange.” But what does this mean?
Clearly, the contrast theory of meaning is not substantive in the sense of giving an account of the intrinsic qualities of the apple. It merely posits what an apple is not. It is not an orange. It is, in effect, an exclusionary theory of meaning or, if you prefer, an instance of Augustine’s “via negativa.” It asserts what an apple is not. But where does this take us? Does it take us anywhere?
Well, yes it does. Within the categories over which it exercises its, um, meaning – in the present case categories of fruit – it enables us to distinguish the apple from non-apples. This is a start. Can we reasonably ask for more?
Yes we can. The contrast theorof meaning is, in effect, a refutation of the poster’s intial sentence, i.e., that it lacks meaning. The poster asks, “What’s the opposite of me, or you. The colour blue.” But that is incoherent. It is incoherent because it constitutes an illegitimate move across conceptual categories, i.e., from people to colours. If nothing else, the contrast theory of meaning has shone light on the incoherence of comparing incommensurable categories.
Thank you very much. You may put down your pens.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Some people don’t like to lose OP. They don’t discuss, they argue and try and manipulate your words. It’s a contest to them and some take it personally. I take the smile, wave and nod approach to those characters.
True Story, Troodon. I like to debate, not argue. There’s no point in dragging your tangled ball of emotions into every disagreement you have with somebody, you just end up mud-slinging instead of coming to conclusions.
Technically speaking, though, I’m pretty sure everything has an “opposite”. The opposite of me would be someone who’s not me, or to be more technically correct, someone whose genetic code is completely different from mine (besides the DNA that all humans share, of course). The opposite of the colour blue would be whatever colour is on the opposite side of the spectrum from it (yellow, maybe?). I’m pretty much just talking out of my ass, though, so I could be completely wrong.
If you believe in alternate universes, not so much parallel but inverse, then everything would have an opposite in time, space, and construction.
http://blog.stackoverflow.com/wp-content/u…
negation isn’t quite the same as opposite.
negation is precise.
opposite may or may not apply.
opposite of blue isn’t whatever color is on the other end of the spectrum.
light is just different wavelengths…
so you’re saying the opposite of 475 nm wavelength of light is a 590 nm wavelength?
I think that falls pretty flat
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/119/29416800…
Fair enough. Like I said, I was mostly talking out of my ass.
allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllrighty then.
http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Brazzers+…
THE CONTRAST THEORY OF MEANING (II)
“negation, n. the absence or opposite of what is actual, positive or affirmative.” (The Amercan College Dictionary)
Good evening.
I was disappointed to read the various comments on my previous post, “The Contrast Theory of Meaning.” I was disappointed because the commenters, for some reason, adopted a physicalist interpretation of meaning. They banged on about light waves and other irrelevancies while the central point was not physicalist but rather conceptual. One might say that they had made a “category mistake” which, since I have previously explicated it, I will not do so now.
A reply of some possible interest came from, of all people, “Fire RageszZz” (06/20, 11:10AM). He wrote: “Negation is not quite the same as opposite. Negation is precise. Opposite may not apply.”
But look at the definition above. Does “Fire” have an additional – even privileged – insight into the nature of “negation” and its differentiantion from “opposite”? If he does, will he reveal it now?
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
some folks are very bad with “making assumptions” my ex was the fucking worst with that …still is …drives me fucking insane…her mother is even worse..always getting stuck on the first thought in their head and not able to see from another point of view or see things from other possible angles..