RE: [OT] Re: CLDR Usage of Gregorian Calendar Era Terms: BC and AD -- Can we please have "CE" and "BCE" ?

From: Peter Constable (petercon@microsoft.com)
Date: Fri Dec 21 2007 - 13:25:27 CST

  • Next message: Ed Trager: "Re: CLDR Usage of Gregorian Calendar Era Terms: BC and AD -- Can we please have "CE" and "BCE" ?"

    > From: David Starner [mailto:prosfilaes@gmail.com]

    > > The thread was clearly identified as off-topic.
    >
    > This thread was clearly identified as a technical discussion about the
    > CLDR, which is not horribly off topic.

    The thread to which I responded has [OT] very plainly pre-pended to the subject.

    > If we really want to discuss this, I could point that dismissing
    > Satanism because some Satanists are Nazis is a little unfair,
    > considering the fact that Nazism is fundamentally a Christian
    > movement. Of course, anti-Semitism in Christianity runs a lot deeper
    > than Nazism. This "philosophic illness", as you deem it, at its heart,
    > stands in opposition to the idea that we can criticize ideas without
    > understanding them, just because we don't believe them.

    To be clear, the philosophic illness to which I referred was *not* anything to do with Satanism, Nazism, Christianity or anti-semitism, as some might infer from your statements being combined in the same paragraph.

    The illness to which I referred -- to wit, that ideas need to be tolerated unless they contradict the proposition that ideas need to be tolerated -- and its opposition are orthogonal to the idea that we can criticize ideas without understanding them. Put another way, there is a difference between understanding of ideas and toleration of ideas, and the two are orthogonal. One may tolerate an idea with or without understanding it; one may also not tolerate an idea with or without understanding it. I oppose the proposition that ideas need to be tolerated unconditionally; but I would not claim that ideas can be rejected without understanding them.

    Peter

    >
    > The major "philosophic illness" I see is the one that leads people to
    > call on tolerance when it supports their beliefs where they would
    > ignore it elsewhere. Like complaining about people using Happy
    > Holidays instead of Merry Christmas when Christmas is still a week
    > away.

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