4 ms·
The author of the article tries to identify "who" coined a particular slang word. Some researchers believe this question is mistaken because, they posit, these
by BaronSamedi 9y ago
The author of the article tries to identify "who" coined a particular slang word. Some researchers believe this question is mistaken because, they posit, these words evolve through a process similar to biological natural selection. See for instance, "On the Origin of Tepees: The Evolution of Ideas" by Jonnie Hughes.
Whatever process ultimately describes the evolution of language, I find it interesting to consider it as possibly due to impersonal, natural forces. This avoids the agency detection bias; one of our many cognitive biases (i.e., bugs in our mental machinery).
- hyperpallium 9y agoSimilar to inventions and discoveries: is it the "great man/woman" theory, or just an idea whose time has come in the historical process? Some work is simultaneous, like the discovery of pluto. Several ideas in maths/science are named after independent developers. OTOH, sometimes classified ideas still haven't been independently invented when declassified many years later. So, I guess it's the safe, boring answer: some is, some isn't.
- BaronSamedi 9y agoEven when we credit individuals, and rightly so, as we do, for example with Einstein, ideas don't spring ex nihilo into existence. Rather, as I like to think of it, they grow and emerge out of a certain intellectual environment. There is a reason Pythagoras didn't discover the Theory of Relativity. My point was simply that asking "who invented (discovered, created) X" is almost always the wrong question. We have a strong tendency to assign credit (and especially blame)to a person because that is what we are wired to do. One thing science has showed us is that the world isn't that simple.