Chapter 9 in the book Everything's an Argument is titled "Arguments of Definition", thus it must imply that there are things that are seen by one group of people but appears to another group as something else. The example given is of U.S. President Barack Obama during a campaign and rather than having his hand over his heart he was standing casually and not wearing his flag pin. After receiving complaints and criticism for this, he then delivered a speech that basically defined how he looked at patriotism compared to how Americans perceived it. Another incident involving different ways of defining a term was Hurricane Katrina, when the media decided to call the myriad of people who fled their homes from the hurricane by the term "evacuees" to prevent the word "refugee" from confusing and angering certain people such as the native-born Americans. The term intelligence has also been argued by whether it is meant by socially or academically wise, dependent on statistics (GPA, SAT scores, etc.) or ability to apply knowledge to reality and perform what many people are unable to do (fixing automobiles, develop new and improved technology). Definitions are those multiple choice questions on the exam with the "All of the Above" option as the correct answer. Terms are defined not only by a simple dictionary, but more through a feeling developed for that word.
There are two main types of definitions: formal and operational. Formal definitions are the direct interpretations of a word. It also implies to the attributes of the word that makes it unique, similar to the genus and species naming in biology. The given example is of hybrid cars, which are defined as passenger cars that are capable of powering on at least two sources. Usually people will vision a battery-powered and gas-powered vehicle such as the Toyota Prius, although others see it as just an eco-friendly car, such as the Chevrolet Malibu which is also considered a hybrid but does not run on two power sources. Thus a conflict has arisen and arguments commence. Operational definitions are what it sounds like, words that are defined through how it operates and the impacts it leaves. The argument in here is when it gets taken pretty far down the road. The example in the book pertains to what exactly is the term sexual harassment. Would a kiss to wake a sleeping beauty be considered sexual harassment or not? Debate usually stir from operational defining when it is over-thought.
Definition is always an interesting topic for me to debate about back and forth with my conscience, especially when it is about operational definition. One I get quite often is whether "Tiger-Mothering" is considered child abuse through harsh mothers or a form of motherly love that she would dedicate most of her time creating stepping stools to success for her child. Others that I hear often range from "is anime considered art?" to "is the government requiring seatbelts to be worn considered a violation of freedom?" The one word that strikes me the most is Asian and how it is defined. People categorize whites as the general people with white skin, blacks as the group with brown or darker skin tone, and Asian as the typical yellow-skinned population of short people with small eyes and black hair. The word Asian originates from "people from Asia". If that is the case, aren't Asian Indians also counted as being Asian? India is the good 'ole country that lies in between the Middle East and central Asia, but veers more towards Asia. The typical Asian Indian is not the yellow-skinned short individual with tiny eyes, but they are "genetically" Asian.
What a thorough response! I really enjoyed a lot of your examples, but there were a couple that stood out to me. One of my favorites was whether Tiger-Mothering is child abuse, which struck close to home as someone who has a tiger-like mother. I have a feeling you might have liked "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Amy Chua as much as I did. Additionally, your example of determining true intelligence reminded me a lot of the whiteboard animation we watched in class a week or so ago. I believe that intelligence has increasingly become tied to the amount and quality of education you receive around and just after high school. More often, people who attend big-name universities like Yale are instantly assumed to be more intelligent, which is probably the case nine times out of ten; however, there are people with highly developed real-world knowledge that can apply themselves and generate success immediately after high school. Again, I think it all comes down to the idea of divergent thinking, which is funny because it kind of ties into the concept of creating multiple definitions. The last example that really spoke to me was about whether anime was art, because it raised a lot of questions around the definition of art itself. I personally think that anime and many other forms of animation constitute art, especially some series or shorts in particular, but it does make one wonder. Are videogames art? While playing something like Grand Theft Auto, the concept can be shaky, but titles like Shadow of The Colossus embody an artistic expression perfectly.
ReplyDelete