Earth v. Eyeth

a) What is the primary argument of the students representing Deaf Culture? The primary argument of the students at Gaullaudet for Deaf culture is that it is “a radical movement that views deafness not as a disability but as an oppressed minority status akin to race, and also as a unique linguistic culture. The movement holds that there is nothing wrong with being deaf, only with how society has treated deaf people.”

b) Why would the Deaf Culture students value a President of Gallaudet who spends more time in Eyeth over Earth? Shouldn't a President of a college represent all students? The Deaf Culture students would value a President of Gallaudet who spends more time in Eyeth over Earth, because then the President would have better and communication and understand and be better able to relate to the Deaf Culture Students. The President of a college should represent most, if not all of the students who attend his/her college. This is shown “in 1988, protesters rebelled against the appointment of a hearing president, Elisabeth Singer, and demanded a deaf president (something Gallaudet had never had since its founding in 1864). Singer resigned , and Jordan was appointed in her place. Fernandes, the Gallaudet provost whom Jordan wanted to see as his replacement, is also deaf; but to some, ‘not deaf enough.’ She grew up lip-reading and speaking and learned sign language only as a graduate student.”

c) What are the advantages and disadvantages of a Deaf person spending too much time in either Eyeth or Earth? The advantage of a Deaf person spending time in Eyeth is that said person can communicate with similarly communicated peoples, and not feel excluded by hearing people; the deaf person can easily focus on just sign language without having to try to read lips. The disadvantage to spending too much time in Eyeth is that said person can become isolated from the rest of the world, the hearing world, and may be lonely if s/he only occasionally meets another deaf person. The advantage of spending time in Earth is that the deaf person can communicate with all the people around them, hearing or not, through more than one method of communication, not just sign. The disadvantage to spending too much time on Earth is that hearing people would expect the deaf person to learn to read lips or even learn speech in order to communicate with hearing peoples, and said person would lose some of the ‘Deaf Culture.’

d) What is your opinion of the fight at Galludet? Should Jane K. Fernandes be President of Gallaudet? My opinion of the fight at Gallaudet is that it is pointless to argue. I believe that the applicant best qualified for the job should be the President. To say that some one is not “deaf enough” is like saying someone is not “white enough.” Its racism through social standards. Fernandes learned “sign language only as a graduate student,” but it shouldn’t matter if she was raised on ASL or if she learned it recently. She grew up learning how to communicate with the hearing world as best suited her, and it is not anyone’s business, nor should it effect her chances at a job, whenever she learned sign language. The point is that she can effectively communicate on both Eyeth and Earth, and if she is properly and best qualified to be the President of Gallaudet than she should be able to be. But then again, who am I to judge, I who could only survive on Eyeth if everything was spelled out slowly, letter by letter, for me?

Linguistic Apartheid notes

Laws Should Restrict Housing for Non-Gaelic Speakers:
• Preserve language→preserve culture. Packed together better use of language. Language is part of the culture, Sapir –Whorf→linguistic determination→if not would eliminate Irish view point
• We were here 1st, Gaelic was the original language
• NOT Racism→You don’t have to live in that part of Ireland
• Might motivate to learn the language
• Good way to keep in touch with the roots, their old culture, even while time moves on→keeps TRADITION (cultural implications)
• You can learn the language
• We can’t let it die





Linguistic Apartheid:
• Discrimination→ Human Right’s implication’s→what would the EU say?
• Elitist
• Living in the past→”bog people”→JOIN the 21st Century
• Discourages improvements/knowledge and narrows the horizons
• Economic implications (we’ll go somewhere else)
• Isolate even more because people won’t want to learn the language just to live there.
• No one speaks it
• We can’t save every language
• Let parents deal with it

Abel Chapter 7 Questions

1. How Do Mill and Frege disagree with Russell about grammatical sentences and meaning?
I. Mill and Frege say that “the meaning of a sentence ought to depend only on the meaning of words that constitute it,” which basically is a sentence says what it means, and has relevance to the context or makes sense. However, Russell disagrees and says “there may be grammatical sentences, and thus apparently meaningful sentences, without meaning.” So Russell argues that not every grammatically correct sentence has meaning
2. Abel provides 8 distinguishing features of meaning. Provide an example for each.
I. Indication-“That look in her eyes means trouble not far behind.”
II. Cause-“What does the rain mean for the plants?”
III. Effect-“It means they won’t die from a drought.”
IV. Intention-“I didn’t mean to use all the hot water during my shower.”
V. Explanation-“Why did he do that?”
VI. Purpose-“He does that to show he likes you.”
VII. Implication-“If the roads are too icy from freezing rain, we won’t have to go to school.”
VIII. Significance- “Does this impact my grade?”
3. Why does Abel believe that science and metaphysics is involved in the discussion of linguistic meaning?
I. Abel believes that metaphysics and science must be taken into account when discussing linguistic meaning because “we can talk meaningfully about the world only if we take into account what the world is like." Abel means that we must begin to understand how the world works physically, before we begin to think about it metaphorically.
4. Aristotle provided 10 categories that defined “the range of applicability of a term.” Provide your own example for each.
I. Substance-“It is a book.”
II. Quantity-“It has 498 pages.”
III. Quality-“It was an #1 New York Times Bestseller.”
IV. Relation-“It is the first book in the series.”
V. Place-“It is in my room.”
VI. Time-“It is there are night.”
VII. Action-“It is captivating.”
VIII. Passion-“It is being criticized.”
IX. Situation or Position-“It is on my beside table, next to my lamp.”
X. State or condition-“It is dog-eared and well read.”
5. How does Abel differentiate between Reference and Naming?
I. Reference is “how language bites on to the world. It is a distinctively human activity, and it is public.” Abel means that reference is the simplest and most public (and therefore a verified truth) way to refer to an object, usually by name. Naming is “the direct application of a word to a thing…nothing stands between a thing and its name.” So a reference can be something like “That thing with the shaggy head and wet nose is a dog.” While naming is “that is a dog.” Naming can be referencing, but referencing is not always naming.
6. On Page 66 Abel explains the historical significance of naming. Can you think of any examples he left out? Any contemporary ones he may not be aware of?
I. In Auschwitz, all the prisoners were labeled by being branded on their arms with numbers and letters, and that is how they were referred to.. They were unworthy, in the Nazis’ eyes to have ownership of a name, something that set them apart.
II. On Facebook, if someone tags you in a photograph, they use your name to identify you.
7. What is the main function of naming? What doesn’t it do?
I. The main function of naming is to identify something, without using specifics. It gives a generalization.
II. It doesn’t explicitly state whatever the object is. It is one way of referring to things.
8. What is the difference between sense and reference?
I. The difference between sense and reference is that sense is a description, and reference is that “which is what the words point to or designate.” A sense is to describe something, like “That is Bert, with the moustache.” A reference is to say, “That is Bert.”
9. How does Abel differentiate between Connotation and Denotation? Intension and extension?
I. Connotation is the meaning of the word, whereas the denotation is the examples you get of the word. For example, a nerd is someone who goes to comic book conventions and watches star trek reruns. That is the Connotation of someone’s idea of a nerd. The denotation is if they say “By that definition, Ben, Noah, Eric, and Jimmy, are all nerds.”
II. Intension is “’what you have in mind’ by the term,” whereas extension is all of those in the world by the definition. Intension in our example would be just the people you consider to be “nerds:” Ben, Noah, Eric and Jimmy. Extension is every person in the world who conform to your definition if “nerd.”
10. What does Abel mean when he says “Though meanings require words, they are not identical to words.”
I. Abel means that words do not always carry the same exact meaning every time they are used. “The old woman can no longer bear children,” and “I can’t bear it anymore!” both use the word bear, but it has two different meanings in the first one, it is meant that the woman is too old to have children. The second one states that she can’t bear it anymore,” which indicates frustration, that she cannot deal with anymore abuse.
11. What is the connection between names and descriptions? Do you agree with Abel that we use ‘linguistic symbols to organize experience?
I. The connection between names and descriptions is that they are both ways to refer to things properly. Sometimes they overlap when one uses a name as a description (“He’s another Hitler.”)
II. I do agree with Abel, that we use linguistic symbols to organize experience. We often recall certain events by the most important words said during a conversation, or the one of voice used.
12. Why is referential opacity a problem? Be sure to mention specific examples.
I. Referential opacity is a problem because logically one should be able to rearrange the order of the words in a sentence because “there are certain linguistic contexts in which you cannot substitute one name for another name, or one description for another description, even though they refer to the same particular thing.”
II. Examples:
i. Samuel Clemens adopted the pen name Mark Twain to conceal his identity, which is far different from the other example, “Mark Twain adopted the pen name Mark Twain to conceal his identity, which doesn’t make any sense.
ii. The number of states in the US is 50, and 50 is necessarily less than 51, but the number of states is not necessarily less than 51.
iii. Bert thinks the capital of Oregon is Sacramento, but Sacramento is the capital of California, but that does not mean that Bert thinks the capital of Oregon is inside California.
13. What is the problem of creating a “subsistent entity?”
I. The problem is that with a subsistent entity, one does not believe something exists, but in order to believe that it does not exist one must think about it, which is a paradox, because how do you think about something you don’t believe in.
14. How does Russell differentiate between “descriptive phases and names?
I. He differentiates by saying that descriptive phrases are words that have no denotation, like “the golden mountain,” which is descriptive. A name is something “you must have a direct acquaintance with, “ and which has a denotation.
15. What is the Connection between language and Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by description?
I. The connection is that in language, in order to put a name on something “you must have a direct acquaintance with [it].” The knowledge by Acquaintance allows one to use language to name something.
II. The connection is that in language, you must be able to describe something to reference it. Therefore Knowledge by description is very helpful in referencing objects, especially if their name must pertain to their description.
16. What is a word? What is an icon? What is an index?
I. Word-“a device by which one thing can signify something else.”
II. Icon-“refers to something by looking at a little like it”
III. Index-“is casually connected with what it refers to.”
17. Why is it important fro philosophers to “clarify thought by clarifying language? Why are scientists offenders?”
I. It is important because if we don’t clarify the language, the author/speaker’s words get mixed up and/or are expressed with the incorrect ton. Scientists are offenders because the terms they use to express abstract ideas such and various phenomena of the universe have “no clear denotation or extension.”
18. What does Abel mean when he says, “Just as meanings are not the same as words, so meanings are not the same as operations, or methods or uses?”
I. Abel means that meanings cannot “successfully be paired with actions” and so therefore are not similar to actions that require action or uses, which also require action.