[lbo-talk] Religion: was Re: Christopher Hitchens

[Carrol Cox]

Wojtek has the purpose and actual use of phatic language all wrong. It is
language intended primarily to recognize the humanity of the person
addressed. If you say hellow to someone at the elevator, & they reply, lousy
weather today, isn't it, neither is conveying  information other than the
recognition of each other. Wojtek's focus on sneering at everyone probably
does exhibit the use of phatic language when the user  is him. I would
suggest tht language might in fact have originated in phatic conversation,
which over time would become communicative.

I would argue that it is in fact the most important use of language. Without
a great deal of phatic  language direct relations would atrophjy and you'd
have no one to communicate with. That is, it is phatic language which
enables communicative uses.

Carrol

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of Eubulides
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 11:46 AM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Religion: was Re: Christopher Hitchens

On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 5:54 AM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:


> Demonstrating this, however, was not the purpose of my posting.  That
> purpose was a critique of radical atheism, which focuses on the denial
> of deity or other theological claims made by religions.  I see this
> anti-religion as just another form of idealistic, if not religious,
> thinking. Their central theme is the phatic function of speech (if we
> say a certain way, this will have an effect in the material word).
> For that reason, theology and philosophy bore me to tears - they are
> mainly semantic arguments amounting to intellectual masturbation.
> Frequently, but not frequently admitted, their main phatic function is
> to show off the erudition of the speaker.  High brow pissing contests,
> if you will.
>
> Wojtek

=====================

There must be a lot of pee and cum around your ankles right now, no?
Or are you wearing Depends?

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