@Night Ripper,
Night Ripper;171278 wrote:Probably the same reason some people pretend there is confusion when there is none, because it gives them a chance to look oh so intelligent by clearing up the confusion that they themselves have caused. For example, when someone uses a figure of speech which is then taken literally or when someone splits hairs over some triviality that was misleading to precisely no one.
Well, exactly as you say, sometimes people take figures of speech literally. Happens a lot in philosophy by people taking a figure of speech literally,
and not realizing it. Confusion then results. Then, it becomes a job for -Analytic Philosopher? Consider all those people who use the term, "possible world" as a picturesque way of talking about counter-factuals, and then, suddenly think that there are an actual bunch of worlds out there which sort of like real worlds only not. A job for Analytic Philosopher! Or notoriously, those philosophers who take innocent sentences like, "there is nothing like a dame", or, "nothing is in the drawer", and who suddenly conceive of a kind of thing that a dame is nothing like, or a thing that is in the drawer (like a pair of old socks only invisible) and ask the question, "why is there something rather than nothing"? A job for Analytic Philosopher! And those are only two instances when what you call "pedantry" is exactly the ticket. Yippee, for pedantry! It forces the obscure into the light of day.
