--If we can understand why we develop insider terminology, we may see a way to solve the problem.
--Nietzsche said that we use labels as a way of gaining power over things that we don’t fully or really understand. Like planting a flag on a mountain to claim it.
--And once we’ve put a label on something, we often pretend like that proves we have the idea well under control, forgetting that we really don’t. It’s like the authority of Adam in naming the animals.
--But of course the problem is that this little deception is easily exposed when someone simply asks us to explain the meaning of a term in such a way that they can understand it.
--Similarly, for Ludwig Wittgenstein, the best way to know whether someone actually understands an idea (such as a math operation like addition) is to have him explain it to children.
--And the common result of forcing people to examine their ideas and terms so rigorously that they reach this level of clarity is that they actually find the terms to be largely unnecessary.
--So my goal in dealing with the problem of Christianese is to accomplish two goals.
--First, that you understand these concepts properly.
--Second, that you can explain them to someone else through the use of ordinary words and examples. In the end, this is the best way to avoid all the problems I’ve been outlining for the last two days, even though it’s perfectly understandable why we acquire terminology in the first place.
--And what this will do is put us in the right frame of mind so that if someone ever does ask us what a term means (when we’ve inadvertently reverted to using it), we won’t react with the contempt of the fake expert who only knows the terms, but with the educational patience of the actual expert who understands the ideas.
--Nietzsche said that we use labels as a way of gaining power over things that we don’t fully or really understand. Like planting a flag on a mountain to claim it.
--And once we’ve put a label on something, we often pretend like that proves we have the idea well under control, forgetting that we really don’t. It’s like the authority of Adam in naming the animals.
--But of course the problem is that this little deception is easily exposed when someone simply asks us to explain the meaning of a term in such a way that they can understand it.
--Similarly, for Ludwig Wittgenstein, the best way to know whether someone actually understands an idea (such as a math operation like addition) is to have him explain it to children.
--And the common result of forcing people to examine their ideas and terms so rigorously that they reach this level of clarity is that they actually find the terms to be largely unnecessary.
--So my goal in dealing with the problem of Christianese is to accomplish two goals.
--First, that you understand these concepts properly.
--Second, that you can explain them to someone else through the use of ordinary words and examples. In the end, this is the best way to avoid all the problems I’ve been outlining for the last two days, even though it’s perfectly understandable why we acquire terminology in the first place.
--And what this will do is put us in the right frame of mind so that if someone ever does ask us what a term means (when we’ve inadvertently reverted to using it), we won’t react with the contempt of the fake expert who only knows the terms, but with the educational patience of the actual expert who understands the ideas.
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