Evolutionary Philosophy
  • Home
  • About
    • Purpose
    • My Evolution
    • Press Kit
  • Philosophy
    • First Edition >
      • Tenets
      • Know Thyself
      • Survival of the Fittest Philosophers >
        • Ancient Philosophy (Pre 450 CE)
        • Medieval Philosophy (450-1600 CE)
        • Modern Philosophy (1600-1920 CE)
        • Contemporary Philosophy (Post 1920 CE)
      • Evolution 101
      • Philosophy 101
    • Later Works >
      • Academic Paper 1 >
        • Further FAQs
      • Academic Paper 2
      • Greatest Blog Hits
      • Other Publications
  • Fiction
    • Draining the Swamp >
      • Further Q&A
    • Short Stories
    • The Vitanauts
  • Blog
  • Shop

Thought Experiment 47: Rabbit!

3/21/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
I give up. What am I?!
The title of this week's thought experiment makes it sound like a perfectly timed arrival for Easter and Spring. Let's see what it's really about though before we get too egg-cited.

---------------------------------------------------

     Professor Lapin and his assistant were very excited at the prospect of building a lexicon for a previously unknown language. They had only recently discovered the lost tribe of Leporidae and today they were to begin recording the meanings of the words in their language.
     The first word to be defined was "gavagai". They had heard this word being used whenever a rabbit was present, so Lapin was about to write "gavagai = rabbit". But then his assistant interjected. For all they knew, couldn't "gavagai" mean something else, such as "undetached rabbit part" or "Look! Rabbit!"? Perhaps the Leporidae thought of animals as existing in four dimensions, over time and space, and "gavagai" referred only to the part of the rabbit present at the moment of observation? Or perhaps "gavagai" were only observed rabbits and unseen rabbits had a different name?
     The possibilities seemed fanciful, but Lapin had to admit that they were all consistent with what they had observed so far. But how could they know which one was correct? They could make more observations, but in order to rule out all the possibilities they would have to know more or less everything about the tribe, how they lived, and the other words they used. But then how could they even begin their dictionary?


Source: Word and Object by W.V.O. Quine, 1960.

Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 139.

---------------------------------------------------

Surely the iterative steps it takes to build knowledge, and the provisional nature of everything we "know," would answer the surface questions about dictionaries that Professor Lapin and his assistant have, but does this thought experiment have any further implications for how we understand the world and each other? I'll be back on Friday to try to extract some meaning from this problem of language. Hopefully by using some ordinary language as well. Till then, try to use your own words to express what this means to you.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Stay in Touch

    SUBSCRIBE

    RSS Feed


    Blog Philosophy

    This is where ideas mate to form new and better ones. Please share yours respectfully...or they will suffer the fate of extinction!


    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    May 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    July 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    April 2012


    Some Blogs I Follow

    The Book Designer
    The Brooks Blog
    The Creative Penn
    Edge.org
    Evolving Thoughts
    Evolution This View of Life
    Gone Public
    Sam Harris
    Michele Gibney
    Jonathan Martin - 21k12
    Morality's Random Walk
    Ockham's Beard
    Philosophy Bites
    Rationally Speaking
    Reason and Meaning
    Rogue Neuron
    Talking Philosophy
    Rob Wray

    Blog Directory & Business Pages at OnToplist.com

    Blogarama - The Blog Directory
    blog directoryagence web
    Submit Blog & RSS Feeds
    Blogs lists and reviews
    My Zimbio
    Submit Blog Directory
    The SEO King
    Blog Directory
    DirectoryBlogs
    Click to set custom HTML
    Picture

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.