@contrex,
contrex wrote:
knaivete wrote:
It is not a simile, "pandemonium in the pigeon lofts" is not a comparison.
It is an implied simile.
Why do you keep arguing with me?
I think he's possibly trying to seek a psychological compensation here after his complete failure to attack me about Haiku.
@knaivete,
knaivete wrote:Quote:It is an implied simile.
Yes, it is a metaphor.
You are right to the extent that a simile is a metaphor, but not all metaphors are similes. Metaphor is the broader term. When Dawkins says "Pandemonium in the pigeon-loft", he is saying in an abbreviated way, "The response to my remark was like pandemonium in a pigeon-loft", which is a simile.
@contrex,
contrex wrote:
When Dawkins says "Pandemonium in the pigeon-loft", he is saying in an abbreviated way, "The response to my remark was like pandemonium in a pigeon-loft", which is a simile.
Excellent!
What still puzzles me is that Dawkins capitalised "pigeon":
Pandemonium in the Pigeon-lofts. Freethought Feeding Frenzy.
What did he want to do that? Any grammatical or rhetorical effect there?
@oristarA,
oristarA wrote: What still puzzles me is that Dawkins capitalised "pigeon":
I suspect they were originally a heading and sub-heading.
New different question:
What does "it" refer to in "make it possible"?
Context:
Quote:Late antiquity[edit]An important contributor to the discussion concerning the proper relationship between Church and state was St. Augustine, who in The City of God, Book XIX, Chapter 17, began an examination of the ideal relationship between the "earthly city" and the "city of God". In this work, Augustine posited that major points of overlap were to be found between the "earthly city" and the "city of God", especially as people need to live together and get along on earth. Thus Augustine held that it was the work of the "temporal city" to make it possible for a "heavenly city" to be established on earth.[3]
This is an 'it' that refers to nothing; it is a place-holder subject (dummy pronoun).
It is bad to swear.
It is good to have friends
It is easy to break twigs
It is possible to buy shoes in this shop
I will make it possible to use my house for a party
It is raining.
It matters what you eat
@contrex,
Excellent.
Another new question:
The usage of the word pretension:
Does "whatever our intellectual pretensions to monism" mean "whatever our intellectual claims/positions to monism"?
The definition given by my dictionary is:
a false or unsupportable quality.
But the auther is serious Dawkins. I don't think his intellectual pretensions are false in whatsoever sense.
Quote: Like most scientists, I am not a dualist, but I am nevertheless
easily capable of enjoying Vice Versa and Laughing Gas. Paul
Bloom would say this is because, even though I have learned to
be an intellectual monist, I am a human animal and therefore
evolved as an instinctive dualist. The idea that there is a me
perched somewhere behind my eyes and capable, at least in fiction,
of migrating into somebody else's head, is deeply ingrained in
me and in every other human being, whatever our intellectual
pretensions to monism. Bloom supports his contention with exper-
imental evidence that children are even more likely to be dualists
than adults are, especially extremely young children. This suggests
that a tendency to dualism is built into the brain and, according
to Bloom, provides a natural predisposition to embrace religious
ideas.
@oristarA,
Who would like to answer the above question?
@McTag,
McTag wrote:
Quote:Does "whatever our intellectual pretensions to monism" mean "whatever our intellectual claims/positions to monism"?
yes.
Thank you McTag.
I haven't seen you for quite a while.
The key part of the question is gone now. But a minor puzzle remains:
Why Dawkins has used the word "pretension"? The word seems negative to me.
The definition given by my dictionary is:
Pretension:
a false or unsupportable quality.
But the auther is serious Dawkins.
I don't think his intellectual pretensions are false in whatsoever sense.
@oristarA,
I have been on holiday, in Cornwall.
I understood the question the first time you asked it. When Dawkins refers to "our pretensions", he is referring to the ability people have to delude themselves; which they have, about all sorts of things.
@McTag,
McTag wrote:
I have been on holiday, in Cornwall.
I understood the question the first time you asked it. When Dawkins refers to "our pretensions", he is referring to the ability people have to delude themselves; which they have, about all sorts of things.
Is the ability born with nature?
@oristarA,
Yes. A natural propensity, tendency...and in this case, probably largely an unconscious one. People are unaware they're doing it.
@oristarA,
oristarA wrote: Why Dawkins has used the word "pretension"? The word seems negative to me. The definition given by my dictionary is: Pretension: a false or unsupportable quality.
The word 'pretension' has more than one meaning, and at least one (the one Dawkins uses) is not necessarily a negative one:
1. A claim or the assertion of a claim to something.
2. The use of affectation to impress; ostentatiousness.
Dawkins simply means "whatever our intellectual claims to monism". An example of this meaning is when a claimant to a throne is called a 'pretender'. No judgement of the claim is necessarily implied.
@contrex,
These are deeper waters. I never before saw a link between pretend, pretence, and pretension.
Seems dubious to me. I must investigate.
Oxford Dictionaries is as good a source as any:
Pretension
Noun
1 (pretension to) A claim or assertion of a claim to something: his pretensions to the imperial inheritance [mass noun]: all that we cannot tolerate is pretension to infallibility
More example sentences
Another reaction to our new scientific powers is what I will call the Malthusian Pretension - that is, the pretension to the ability to predict mankind's limitations.
Intelligence's pretension to being objective is a hoax because those parts of it that do not reconfirm the power structure's interests and predetermined policies are ignored and discarded.
As a result, the pretension to universality is all the more justified as researchers find themselves working in decontextualized and highly formalized fields.
Synonyms
aspiration, claim, assertion, pretence, profession, purporting
1.1 (often pretensions) A claim or aspiration to a particular quality: another ageing rocker with literary pretensions
More example sentences
Maybe I'll throw my literary pretensions out of the window for a while and try hurling a few oddly-shaped shards of prose in your direction.
Preferably female and extremely annoying, with literary pretensions.
The important thing is that no one with literary pretensions should be allowed near the project!
2 [mass noun] The use of affectation to impress; pretentiousness: he spoke simply, without pretension
More example sentences
He has staked out his claim for being a great critic through portentousness, pomposity, and extravagant pretension, and, from all appearances, seems to have achieved it.
Its very simplicity serves as a correction to the elaborate artifice and pretension - most of it hollow - that pervade current dance-making.
When she is there with you, she is simply there, with no pretension, no elaboration, no show.
pretender
A person who claims or aspires to a title or position: the pretender to the throne
More example sentences
He isn't thinking of returning full-time to a career in interviewing and he wasn't keen to offer advice to the latest pretender to his throne.
Proves that a serious pretender to the throne of pop music refinement need not settle for a mere band when the London Philharmonic will do just as well.
Plus, I am not even Chinese, so I am not a China girl per se, just a pretender to the throne.
@McTag,
McTag wrote:These are deeper waters. I never before saw a link between pretend, pretence, and pretension. Seems dubious to me. I must investigate.
Pretence is falsely claiming; pretension is not always false; to pretend has multiple meanings.
@contrex,
Well that's interesting, much food for thought there. Thank you.
