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That's a literal interpretation, but it's an expression, not a scientific law. People often say something like "That never happens" about things that are simply
by leereeves 5y ago
That's a literal interpretation, but it's an expression, not a scientific law. People often say something like "That never happens" about things that are simply very rare.
Seeing the rather literal tone of the conversation, I responded with an equally literal interpretation of the comic. Of course I know that the "local fertility goddess" is a figurative expression for the abundance of nature, but "no such thing as a free lunch" is also figurative, and "the pot calling the kettle black" isn't actually about a talking pot.
- quadrangle 5y agoI was NOT doing a literal interp. That would mean getting hung up on what counts as "lunch" and not recognizing that it's a metaphor. That's not what I was doing. Everything I've posted is about critiquing what I see as the implications and ramifications and arguments of the metaphor, recognizing it as the aphorism that it is.
- leereeves 5y agoIt's a literal interp of "there's no such thing", whereas I interpret it as hyperbole, much like "nobody does that anymore" or "I looked everywhere...". Yes, there are a few free lunches. That doesn't make it bad expression, just not a literal one. "The idea that everything in life should have a price", as you said, is hyperbole too. There are lots of things that no one is trying to put a price on, but let's not go down that road. > Some things in life are abundant and need no pricing and have nothing hidden. Yes, but food isn't one of them in a world with 7 billion people. Compared to the population, food isn't abundant, and managing to feed so many people is one of the greatest human achievements; it's all thanks to the work of hundreds of millions of people, not nature's abundance.