[quote=ThePits]
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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
damn thread, keeps pulling me back.
the dictionary features word coinage, not the accuracy or reality of those words. when you want to study a subject you don't read dictionary entries on it, do you?quote]
No you don't read a dictionary to study a subject, you use it to define what you are studying in the first place
Without a clear definition of what you seek to study where do you start?
As to whether race exists or not, if it doesn't, all the scientists who study races have got it wrong, as has the whole "race" industry such as lawyers, psychologists, geneticists etc
And we few, we happy few, on a message board have got it right?
EUREKA!
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no, dictionaries do not provide scientific or technical definitions. dictionaries are for schoolchildren and newspaper writers.
im asking you to distinguish between race as a POLITICAL notion and race as a BIOLOGICAL notion. the dictionary and most people conflate both. people who study the subject don't.
the "race" that we discuss on a daily basis in bars and marketplaces is a POLITICAL notion, but people are deluded to think that it has a SCIENTIFIC basis.
words are funny things. they are sloppy containers for SEMANTIC FIELDS. any sort of worthy discussion on that subject requires a strict definition of the subject at hand, and common dictionaries are not good at that at all. much of the work of academia is about defining what words actually mean.
you remember the recent upheaval about pluto not being a
planet? if the gross physical word presents such problems, imagine what challenge social and biological phenomena present for any serious inquiry. i mean serious. on the internet, we are all talking
shite.