Michael Hall - Thu Jan 31 22:45:55 2008
Can the GOE be applied to abstract concepts or do they have to be tangible things like the examples we used in class? The reason I ask this question is that I was thinking about the word or concept of "Love". What would be the features that one would list for this? Would the prototypical "love" be something like: the love between a mother and child, the love of say candy, the love for a hot shower, the list could go on and on. The semantic and pragmatic possibilities for the use of the word are virtually endless. I had enough trouble coming up with features to list for musical instruments! Any thoughts?
Comments
does our inability to come up with the defining features of musical instruments show that it is a rather abstract concept?
I think it would be interesting to see if anyone has done the GOE with more abstract ideas such as love. I imagine that the subjectivity would be so variable that it would be difficult to get any sort of tangeable, worthwhile results.
I'm now going to be thinking about this all day, trying to figure out what prototypical love could be..