The Chinese philosopher Confucius believed that social disorder can come from not understanding what someone is saying. It is therefore imperative that people call things by their proper name (hence "rectification of names"). That includes using words that actually mean something. Here is a quote from Confucius on the subject:
"A superior man, in regard to what he does not know, shows caustic reserve. If the names be not correct, the language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If the language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried out to success. If affairs are not carried out to success, proprieties and music do not flourish. When proprieties and music do not flourish, punishments will not be properly awarded. When punishments are not properly awarded, the people do not know how to move a hand or foot. Therefore the superior man considers it necessary that the names he uses may be spoken appropriately, and also what he speaks may be carried out appropriately. What the superior man requires is that in his words there may be nothing incorrect."
So you see just how things can be affected by using the right or wrong word. Using the example of the old "Want of a Nail" poem, if just one thing is missing or wrong, everything can fall apart. So using word properly is important.
Let's take a look at the words I listed above:
"Homophobic" is said to mean "someone who hates homosexuals". Roughly translated from Greek it means---what? Same fear? After all homos means "same" and phobos means "fear". You can see what confusion results from this. "Homophobic", believe it or not, in the end does not really mean anything in particular. It is simply used as an abusive insult to people who disagree with the homosexual lifestyle. So they're just being rude to people who don't agree with them. This does not encourage good relationships with people.
"Commitment-phobic" is often used to describe men. It may sound like it means something, but it really doesn't. If you want to describe a man who does not want to commit and instead go around seducing women left and right, "commitment-phobic" is not the word to use. "Dissolute", "philanderer", or "lascivious" would better describe someone like that. The other problem is that people use the word to describe men generally. This is wrong. While there are indeed men who philander about and seduce women, to say all men are "commitment-phobic" is not really specific. And hence you get a lot of confusion, plus a highly unfortunate stereotype of an overly-sexualized male.
"Un-American" is meant to sound like something is not American. This also doesn't mean a thing simply because---it doesn't. It just isn't really word for anything. It is also a term of abuse. If you say something is "un-American", you're just being insulting. And insults do not make good arguments. If anything, it just turns people off to your argument.
When people talk about Rectification of Names, they are talking about being clear and specific about what you are saying. When people throw meaningless words, they sow confusion and destruction. So when Confucius talked about calling things by their proper name, he was saying that using words correctly encourages order. What that means is that people should throw away words like "homophobic" and stuff like that, and just try to actually use words that mean something. Just throwing around insults does not help anything or anyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment