You got a note off to Doug and think today’s Merriam-Webster Word of the Day is pertinent.
The Word of the Day for December 2 is:
stratagem \STRAT-uh-jum\ noun
1 a : an artifice or trick in war for deceiving and outwitting the enemy
b : a cleverly contrived trick or scheme for gaining an end
2 : skill in ruses or trickery
Examples:
As a stratagem to get the kids to do their chores, Melissa persuaded them to have a race to see which child could finish first.
"With runners at the corners, Bochy unwrapped one of his favorite stratagems. He had Fontenot take off for second base on a pitch to Sandoval, then Torres came home on the designed delayed steal to give the Giants a 4-1 lead." -- From an article by Andrew Baggarly in the Monterey County Herald, July 16, 2011
Did you know?
A "stratagem" is any clever scheme -- sometimes one that's part of an overall "strategy" (i.e., a carefully worked out plan of action). Clearly, we no longer limit ourselves to the original military sense of "stratagem" as 15th-century users of the term did. The military meaning can be traced back to the word's Greek ancestor "strategema," which is itself based on "strategein," meaning "to
act as a general." "Strategein" in turn comes from "strategos" ("general"), which comes from "stratos" ("army") and "agein" ("to lead"). "Strategos" is an ancestor of "strategy" as well.
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Doug and I are interested in Amorella because if her perspective holds she might provide further insight (through imagination and reason) about how it is for our species of body and heartansoulanmind living in universal physics. If nothing else it is good practice for the brain and reason.
Chores and errands moving along, a trip to Kroger’s for cat food after Carol is out of the bank. Your Key Bank is a fairly modern structure with two Doric columns, one to each side of the door. You wonder what the purpose is and why you have not noticed them for thirty years or so.
I understand the allusion to Greece, but a reference to Greece on the bank these days brings in a bit of dark humor on this otherwise cool and sunny day. We are almost noontime and I doubt we will arrive in Cleveland before rush hour. Perhaps we will wait and drive in the morning. It is up to Carol she has a lot to do – presents have to be wrapped for the trip up. I did finish raking and bagging the leaves and running a couple errands myself while Carol was at the hospital for her yearly cancer screening. My family runs with strokes and heart attacks while hers runs with cancer potential. I am not really feeling better but I have gone to 292 naked while a month ago I was 304 with clothes on. In the 80’s and 90’s I was steady at 335 then the weight shot up to 400 – I had my stomach banded in 2004 and it has been 315 until now. Who knows how I have survived this long.
Lunch at Smashburgers, Carol is shopping at Carter’s and Hallmark at VOA Centre. Then home. Let’s go to Kim’s old logic lecture notes. – Amorella.
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Logic and Language
Language is expressive, suggestive, explanatory, questioning, and descriptive.
Statements conform or do not conform to a state of affairs that exist.
Statements are true or they are false.
Words are based on a system of sensible signs that depend on meaning via abstraction that is established by conventional use (dictionary).
Term words have meaning. Other words are connectors.
Rules for definitions
1. it should be neither to narrow nor broad
2. should not be circular (problem with def. of straight//curve)
3. express in positive terms
4. it should be simple in explanation
Paradox: appears both true and false (Zeno’s Paradox)
Plato: Selected Concepts:
Reason (science/facts) ........... Knowledge
Understanding (hypothesis) ........... Weaker Knowledge
Belief ........... Opinion
Conjecture ........... Weaker Opinion
[Explain the differences between knowledge and wisdom. (Extra Credit Essay)]
Reality has: A. form; B. substance; C. process/movement; D. atomics (glue)
Plato: Reality is unchanging whereas ‘reality’ changes in process, ex. Humans
Plato’s Cave: Perfect Circle outside the cave. Earth reality within the cave. All we see is the reflection (shadow on the interior cave wall) of the Perfect Circle from the entrance of the cave.
Platonic and Neo-Platonic (Romantic writers: Thoreau, Emerson, Melville, Poe)
1. Possibility of Platonic Forms
2. Forms may exist outside the universe
3. Some things we cannot know. Ex. Nothingness
4. There is no way to explain ‘other’ operations outside the universe
5. Therefore, all knowledge is impossible (sometimes probability; faith)
A. Pure Non-existence (impossible to understand)
B. Non-being: a logical relationship to otherness. Ex. A hole (in a can)
There are no elephants in the room. May grammatically imply: non-elephants are in the room. But grammatically the statement simply means: ‘no elephants are present in the room.
Aristotle: Selected Concepts:
Five Elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Fifth Essence (eternal/no decay)
Philosopher’s Stone: transmutation (time machine-like) of lead which would eventually evolve into gold as would all elements. Gold is as Fifth Essence.
Personality types: Sanguine, Phlegmatic; Choleric; Melancholy (see Chaucer)
Physical Humors: blood; phlegm; choler; and black bile (health descriptions)
Self Referential Winning Examples [the humor of logic, grammar and language]
(from Scientific American monthly)
1. This sentence in French is difficult to translate into English.
2. What is a question that can serve as it own answer?
3. The reader of this sentence exists only while reading me.
4. What would I be doing now if I had different genes.
5. This sentence would be seven words long if it were six words shorter.
6. Does this sentence remind you of Agatha Christie?
7. This sentance has three erors.
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You are wondering why I am having you include this much material. One reason is to show where your head is. I, Amorella, am a subjective reality with an objective reality as an outcome. Do you agree?
I do, although when stated like it is the “objective reality” makes me a bit apprehensive.
I know it does. Why is this?
Normally one does not associate an apparition causing anything in the physical world. An apparition, by its very nature, appears to be unnatural or supernatural. Either way, dark-humored as I am, the perspective would not make for a good outcome. Shakespeare’s MacBeth comes to mind. I have a tendency to think of an apparition as an illusion. Reality has form, substance, process and physical structure.
I, Amorella, also have form, substance, process and your mind is environmentally friendly which thus provides me a physical structure. My form has margins for reason and error. My process is reasonable and my substance is thought which is ‘more’ than your own, by your admission.
What is your form?
Reason.
We are in Cleveland, great take out Chinese from the Happy Buddha for supper. I am full, tired and will probably go to bed early. I have more to say on 'form' because reason appear to me to be process.
I see myself as an event. Post. – Amorella.
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