On Mon, 8 Jul 1996, LISTER. MATTHEW J wrote:
[text deleted]
>
> But which definition of pornography is correct? This is exactly my
> point. There is no correct deffinition apart from use, unless
> perhaps we could get everyone to subscribe to some sort of pragmatic
> theory of meaning, in which the most useful definition is the _true_
> one, but then who decides which is the most useful, and for whom?
And part of the problem here is just the particular word you
are trying to define, I think. In my comp classes each year,
the students work in small groups to define the terms and discover the
meanings of various expressions in the material they are reading as a
resource for practicing composition. This "definition" session
is usually the easiest part of
any unit of study. Censorship is one subject that is
addressed in some guise or another every semester and, in five
years, there has never been a class (20-25 students) that could
agree on a definition of pornography. There has seldom been a
small group (5 students) who could agree on the definition.
And it's the most convincing demonstration to the students of
the difficulties and pitfalls of censorship...
Darlene Sybert
http://www.missouri.edu/~engds/index.html
University of Missouri, Columbia (English)
*****************************************************************************
A designer knows she has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to
add, but when there is nothing left to take away. -Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery
******************************************************************************
[text deleted]
>
> But which definition of pornography is correct? This is exactly my
> point. There is no correct deffinition apart from use, unless
> perhaps we could get everyone to subscribe to some sort of pragmatic
> theory of meaning, in which the most useful definition is the _true_
> one, but then who decides which is the most useful, and for whom?
And part of the problem here is just the particular word you
are trying to define, I think. In my comp classes each year,
the students work in small groups to define the terms and discover the
meanings of various expressions in the material they are reading as a
resource for practicing composition. This "definition" session
is usually the easiest part of
any unit of study. Censorship is one subject that is
addressed in some guise or another every semester and, in five
years, there has never been a class (20-25 students) that could
agree on a definition of pornography. There has seldom been a
small group (5 students) who could agree on the definition.
And it's the most convincing demonstration to the students of
the difficulties and pitfalls of censorship...
Darlene Sybert
http://www.missouri.edu/~engds/index.html
University of Missouri, Columbia (English)
*****************************************************************************
A designer knows she has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to
add, but when there is nothing left to take away. -Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery
******************************************************************************