Tuesday, March 17, 2020

The meanings of words

The meanings of words Over time, means through which creatures have communicated with each other have evolved. From this, we now have words that supposedly carry meaning with them through which we are able to express our ideas and feelings to other. It is my opinion though, that we still do not have a means of communication through which we are able to accurately depict our feelings and ideas to each other because we are do not have the words to accomplish this with. We also have words whose meanings vary substantially from use to use based on the context of the word. Essentially, we are experiencing the symbol grounding problem that Descartes theorized with the way we associate ideas of objects and their representation.Theories about time and evolution have been floating around almost as long as time itself. Where we came from, who we evolved from, and the involvement of god has always plagued mankind.First figure of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Ph...Science attempted to answer this by tracing our anc estry through our mammalian brothers all the way back to the pre-biotic soup we emerged from. Religion explained it using the Garden of Eden and the creation of man in God's image.Whitehead had his own ideas about these issues just like all of us. As far as evolution, he essentially came up an alternative to scientific materialism, what he called a new doctrine of organism. Basically, everything in this world started out as 'stuff'. From 'stuff' came the pre-biotic soup and after a few more jumps in the chain, there were rats and other such creatures followed by a few more jumps to where we are now. He also felt that through creation, there is no more material now on the earth than there was in the beginning meaning that there is as much 'us' now as there...

Sunday, March 1, 2020

The Etymology (and Punctuation) of Fathers Day

The Etymology (and Punctuation) of Fathers Day The Etymology (and Punctuation) of Father’s Day Happy Fathers Day! And what better way to celebrate than with a little etymology? A slap-up meal followed by a nap in the sunshine, you say? There’ll be time for that later! For now, let’s look at where the word â€Å"father† comes from and why we use an apostrophe in â€Å"Fathers Day.† The Etymology of Father Our modern word â€Å"father† comes from the Old English fà ¦der, which meant â€Å"he who begets a child.† This is close to several words for fathers in other languages, including Old Norse (fathir), German (Vater), Sanskrit (pitar), and Latin and Greek (both use pater). In fact, the similarities between these words suggest a common source. As such, most experts trace â€Å"father† to a Proto-Indo-European term. And while we cannot know what this was exactly, it may have been something like pÉ™ter-. Fatherhood is tough when your kids look down on you. Pa, Papa, Dad, and More So if â€Å"father† comes from pÉ™ter-, where does this term come from? It may have evolved from the basic noise â€Å"pa,† which we still see in words like â€Å"papa.† The words â€Å"dad† and â€Å"dada† have similar origins in â€Å"da,† and we see these simple sounds in words for fathers all over the world. The main theory for why we see this pattern so much is that â€Å"da,† â€Å"pa,† and â€Å"ta† are some of the first noises babies can make. The same is true of the â€Å"ma† from â€Å"mama,† which becomes â€Å"mom.† As such, when babies start making noises like â€Å"da† and â€Å"pa,† we assume they’re addressing their parents. And over time, this has led to words like â€Å"dad† and â€Å"pa† entering our everyday speech. Fathers Day vs. Fathers Day As a rule, you should always include an apostrophe in Fathers Day. This is the traditional way of writing it, but it also makes sense. After all, you usually focus on your own father on this day. Thus, the â€Å"Father† in Fathers Day is typically one person, even if that person is different for each of us. Writing â€Å"Fathers Day† or â€Å"Fathers Day,† on the other hand, would imply you’re celebrating fathers in general. And while that would be admirable, you’d need a lot of stamps to send a card to every father in the world. All in all, then, you’re probably better off focusing on your own dad for today.