Talking to a coworker today and she pronounced “benevolent” as “ben-evil-ent”. I appreciate the juxtaposition of good and evil in the same word.
Benevilent
2010-05-27 14:35
Talking to a coworker today and she pronounced “benevolent” as “ben-evil-ent”. I appreciate the juxtaposition of good and evil in the same word.
Good and evil are relative concepts. So it’s good to finally have a word that reflects that!
1. You *can* take credit for the word you coined.
2. Is everything relative to you?!?! :-) :-P
Hmm… To put it in non liberal arts terms: Constructivism (mathematics)
Yes… but what do *you* think…
Besides… you can’t argue with Wikipedia until you have as many wiki edits or pages as I do. (Sorry to drag work into it.)
:-P
No prob… That’s where benevilent started after all :-)
BUT: Hahaha… not sure I want to play by the suggested rules :)
My take on things is: The world is what we make of it. E.g. gender is a social construct, so is race and social status.
The omnipresent perception of male-female is socially constructed, supported by the fact that the biological difference is irrefutable, the large majority of people is either male or female from a physical standpoint. What is a social construct is the social rules, norms, ethics and assumptions around this rigid dichotomy, which is the definition of gender. One’s sex is not debatable (even though there are sociologists out there that would also argue against this), but gender is. There are more than two genders, depending on your socialization.
Following this argument, good and evil are concepts that need to be filled with content through time and circumstances.
I have my set of values that I operate on. That determines my definition of good and evil. We make the assumption in everyday interaction that others operate on the same value set. These assumptions hold true in most cases, thus reduce the complexity of interaction and, there you go, society works.
It is an ever-changing process though. And benevilent nicely captures that.
Meta: Hmmm… I think replies stop nesting after a while. This is going to become unwieldy (too late).
[Rules]
I like that response very much on one level (the meta level). I dislike it on the other (the part that wants other people to listen to me).
:-) :-P
[Substance]
So… the good thing is that we mostly agree… our main differences are:
a) You write better / more complex than I do. (like)
b) You surface these things… I believe all this, but rarely verbalize it. (like).
c) But… to what extent isn’t everyone (that you and I’d be friends with… close enough to everyone for the sake of this discussion) believing in this?
d) If we’re going to say that there are more than two genders… how many are there? At what point do we say 2 (the socially acceptable definition of gender… and probably what’s in the dictionary) vs. infinite (one per person). What defines gender well enough to let us count it?
e) Society has to codify good and evil for its own survival / internal self-consistency. While my definition and yours are probably close, we still need to interact with society/societies that define their versions of good and evil (through laws (secondarily interpreted through police (non-enforced laws), judges, and juries) and through social means (ostracization)).
f) You are at a distinct advantage compared to me… this is your area of expertise… you have frameworks and studied background for this… thank you for not running circles around me. :-)
Meta: yes, we are testing the limits of your blog!
Re: rules: I am listening… At least I am hearing you speak…;-)
a) thank you. I like your style of writing as well I also hope that you understand now that I am very fluent in English, and hence language is not a barrier.
b) I am glad I can discuss on this level with you. Since I left school my opportunities for conversations like these have been limited. I am still toying with the idea of a PhD. But when…?
c) Some of my friends believe in this as well, and yes, while it is fun to discuss, isn’t all of this redundant? Sociology is strange in this matter. It is a science that takes topics that seem so… “duh”, analyzes them, and in the end you go on with your life thinking: “So I just exhausted my brain to grasp all this, and how is this changing my behavior? What are the action items?” At that point you can either become pragmatic, find a job in the industry, make money and pursue sociology in you intellectual ivory tower just for fun, or take your firm ideals, stay poor, become radical and take affirmative action because you think you can deduce how society *should* be. That’s how gender mainstreaming was born. I am not a fan of affirmative action per se. While I am certain that I owe a large amount of my ability to e.g. have a career to feminist actions, how much collateral damage is being done by gender mainstreaming actions in companies? How many competent, better qualified male applications for a job had to be dismissed in favor of a mediocre female? This leads to a whole new discussion of the difference between equality and fairness………
So I am back to thinking that sociology for me is a nice philosophical hobby.
d) infinite/ n/a. If you accept that gender is a social construction in coherence with the binary biological sex, and is maintained by what e.g. Judith Butler calls “frameworks of intelligibility” or “disciplinary regimes”, the question for a number is redundant.
e) Philosophically speaking, the “frameworks of intelligibility” or “disciplinary regimes” apply here too.
f) You ask the right questions and structure your thoughts coherently. How many fellow students in my classes were not able to do that? Again, infinite number ;-)
[Rules]
Again… I like your answer / that you make the distinction.
a) I know you are fluent… but I still need to refine my assessment… various of my (native English) friends require me to use different analogies / words / etc… you’re the same. I don’t really change my style for you… yet… I probably will to make it more complicated since you seem to like it.
b) PhD / MBA / kids… there’s never a good time… just do it? But why? You’re more practical than that.
c) I have to read “The Bell Curve”… I think it’ll help be verbalize a lot of these ideas. While I’m at it… Guns, Germs, and Steel was a good book in helping me frame my thinking about things… as is visiting Europe… (you learn where phrases like “The Upper Crust” come from).
I just believe in equality and meritocracy. My kids are going to be the best they can be / want to be… the only thing that should stop them are their own abilities…
As for sociology being a nice philosophical hobby, good… you can teach me.
d) I’m a mathematician / computer programmer… counting things is vitally important :-)
0, 1, n… those are the important numbers to mathematicians.
0, 1, 2, n… those are for computer programmers.
I haven’t yet figured out what managers think… I’m new at this…
e) soooo many questions… and blog comments are soooo low bandwidth… I think you’re one of the first Liberal Arts (snicker) majors willing to discuss this in a way that interests me.
f) Hmmm… either I have an optimistic view of your fellow students or you have a pessimistic view of them….