philh comments on Stupid Questions May 2015 - Less Wrong

10 Post author: Gondolinian 01 May 2015 05:28PM

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Comment author: VoiceOfRa 03 July 2015 05:58:13PM 2 points [-]

Because the map is not the territory?

That's an argument for bringing our map closer to the territory, i.e., applying the word "gender" in humans to the same concept we use for animals. Not for completely messing up our map.

Comment author: philh 03 July 2015 11:24:14PM 2 points [-]

That "i.e." is doing an awful lot of work. I don't agree that the map is messed up, and moving a label doesn't necessarily bring it closer to the territory.

Comment author: VoiceOfRa 04 July 2015 12:20:07AM 2 points [-]

Above you said:

We use the word "female" when referring to babies and animals, but that doesn't mean we're necessarily talking about the same thing as when we refer to adult humans

So what did you mean by that?

Comment author: philh 04 July 2015 11:57:47AM 2 points [-]

Tapping out.