Birth of Sociology

[fractalfeline]

Reminds me of another fun quote:

DAKKON: There is no knowing the answer to the questions we have asked. That is all.
TNO: Yet I would maintain that we know ourselves by the questions we ask and the ones we do not. If we cease asking questions and accept only what we can perceive...
DAKKON: Then we will cease to know ourselves.

 

[kalanac]

Are we discussing philosophy, sociology, or language?

Semantics is a more accurate word for the linguistic issues thus far discussed, but yes, that's what I was trying to get at with my elephant / house statement.

The idea that maths can be altered by semantics is only true in so far as the idiosyncratic relevance (*coughs up portions of a dictionary*)

In short, saying that an elephant represents the number 3 would only be true to the group who use this semantic association. Saying that 3 doesn't exist because we can't know for sure 3 equals 3 is sophistry. We know 3 equals 3 because we say it does. Regardless of what we call it the concept of 3, three discreet and separate yet identical or similar quantities, instances or entities, is unchanged. It's just loads easier to say three than to keep describing the concept of three.

Anyhoo, the original topic was sociology, which is the study of metrics and structures used to classify human social interaction.