5 ms·
It sounds way better to call them heroic. That's reason enough for me.
by bayesian_horse 5y ago
It sounds way better to call them heroic. That's reason enough for me.
- ALittleLight 5y agoSure, it would sound better if I introduced myself as an NBA player, but that doesn't make it true. "Life-saving rats" sounds pretty good and is defensible. "Hero" seems like a bit of a stretch.
- BoorishBears 5y agohero: a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. The rats are admired for their outstanding achievements. Ergo, they are heroic rats. What's the point of being pedantic if you're not at least accurate?
- mrwh 5y agoIndeed. You don't need to know that you're a hero in order to be a hero...
- ALittleLight 5y agoI don't understand how this isn't accurate. Even with your definition: A. Not a person. B. Not courageous because they have no idea what they are doing. C. Noble qualities aren't in evidence because all the rats know is that the sniff a field and get treats.
- Luc 5y agoThat’s a wilfully unsophisticated view of language though.
- ALittleLight 5y agoIn what way? I'm considering the qualities of a hero from the given definition and arguing that they don't apply to bomb defusing rats and it's therefore wrong to call them heroes. I can't imagine how that's unsophisticated.
- BoorishBears 5y agoYou failed to heed the meaning of the term "or" (!) Doesn't that alone disqualify your rebuttal?
- ALittleLight 5y agoWait... I "failed to heed" the word "or", but you get to ignore the word "person"?
- BoorishBears 5y agoWhen 2/3rds of an argument is countered by not ignoring the term "or" I tend ask you fix that first? Especially when that remaining 1/3rd is just you taking an unsophisticated approach to the concept of anthropomorphization...
- ALittleLight 5y agoI think it's pretty clear the given definition doesn't apply here. While I do enjoy debating semantics, I don't see that you actually have any argument here, so I'm just going to leave it at that.
- herodoturtle 5y agoThis chain of comments right here is one of the reasons I do so love HN. A technical debate on the semantics of heroic rats. Plus it actually helped improve my English! Cheers :-)
- codyb 5y agoCan’t you just go with Merriam Webster’s fourth definition under hero “an object of extreme devotion or admiration”. Although the synonyms section cracked me up cause it definitely took me a second Synonyms “Cuban sandwich, grinder, hoagie (also hoagy), Italian sandwich, po’boy, …”