RE: Agnostic: a pointless term?
December 9, 2014 at 4:41 am
(This post was last modified: December 9, 2014 at 4:42 am by Thumpalumpacus.)
I don't think all elastic terms are silly; they permit a limited language to express the ineffable. I think it's important to outline how one is using the term, at some point.
Some are vapid, some are resonant, and how they are adjudged should be based on how they're being used. Words exist for a reason: to express the human experience. And sometimes, the human experience is ineffable, meaning that language cannot always express exactly what is being felt at the moment. This is why words have both denotations and connotations. Elastic words sometimes have connotative value which gives them utility in expressing the ineffable.
Some are vapid, some are resonant, and how they are adjudged should be based on how they're being used. Words exist for a reason: to express the human experience. And sometimes, the human experience is ineffable, meaning that language cannot always express exactly what is being felt at the moment. This is why words have both denotations and connotations. Elastic words sometimes have connotative value which gives them utility in expressing the ineffable.
