Assignment 30  Read "What Does Under God Mean?"

1. Write an short essay (one page, single spaced) explaining this problem in terms of concepts in this class. (One word = one meaning fallacy, reification, logical fallacies are all possibilities). The question is, "what's going on here in terms of general semantics?"  Note: Please do not take a position on the issue - that's not the point.

Assignment 31 Read "Art Life and Reality" 

1. In this article, I explain the difficulty in coming to believe that all definitions are, in essence, political. That is, they are created to suit a particular purpose and favor a particular point of view (and disfavor others). Make a chart for yourself with some definitions of "Educated" using the same matrix. How many definitions can you come up with? Here's a couple to start you off. Continue.

2. Why do you think it is so difficult for us to give up the word "really" and the expectation that there are "real" absolute, definitions? Why do you think it is so hard to maintain semantic relaxation (and avoid signal reactions).

Assignment 32 Hayakawa: Re-read the beginning of Chapter 8 (pp. 83-87) on abstracting.  And then read this reprise of one of our in-class exercises.

1. Using the concept of levels of abstraction, demonstrate that these two statements are not contradictory:  "If you've seen one professor, you've seen them all." and "Some professors are better than others."