On Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:54:24 -0700, Darren New wrote:

> On 9/19/2011 2:40, Invisible wrote:
>> question who's meaning is obvious,
> 
> And we're telling you that the meaning isn't obvious, because the very
> phrasing of the sentence makes it absurd.
> 
>> (Which I guess just means that nobody actually knows the answer...
>> which is cool, I guess.)
> 
> No, it means the question as you asked it is meaningless, even if
> everyone tries to interpret it in the way you think you meant it.
> 
>> People do this ALL THE TIME.
> 
> We're not arguing that your phrasing of the question is too
> anthropomorphic. We're arguing that the phrasing of your question is
> *meaningless*.  There is no interpretation of what you asked that can be
> answered.
> 
> It's like asking "does a submarine swim?"  The question is meaningless
> *because* of the anthropomorphic choice of words. There is no right
> answer, because any interpretation of the question leads to the answer
> "the question makes no sense."

Well said, Darren - much better than I could have said it.

Jim

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