4 ms·

Not quite the same, but I find humans often incorrectly deny having opinions. There's even a trope: "What do you want to eat for dinner?" "I have no opinion,

Not quite the same, but I find humans often incorrectly deny having opinions. There's even a trope: "What do you want to eat for dinner?" "I have no opinion, anything's fine." "How about mexican food?" "No, too spicy." "How about pizza?" "That's unhealthy" and so on

JohnFen 4y ago
But that exchange is also the result of an ambiguity. If you ask someone what they want for dinner, they're looking for a positive response -- what do they want for dinner? This could be "nothing in particular". But that's an entirely different thing from what you didn't ask: "what don't you want for dinner". You can not have a preference for your meal, but still have a list of things you don't like. This is like asking someone if they like a particular sort of food. The answer can be "no" even if they're fine eating it. Not liking (preferring) a food is a different thing than disliking a food.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
  "Anything's fine" is a denial of there being things that you don't want. But we understand, as humans/embodied systems, that this is a simply a spoken utterance whose actually meaning must be derived from personal knowledge of the speaker and/or further interaction. If you had no preference for the meal, but had things that you don't want to eat, then to be precsely correct you would not say "anything's fine". Something more like "there's nothing in particular that I want to eat". People don't speak in precisely correct ways, however, and we rely on contextual and personal knowledge to decode what they do say, very often.
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    > People don't speak in precisely correct ways, however, and we rely on contextual and personal knowledge to decode what they do say, very often. Yes, this is the crux of the issue. The exact meaning of the words we say when we talk to each other are not usually the most information-bearing part of the communication. I think this is why when people need to communicate with precision, or over media that doesn't allow anything but language, they adopt a specialized sort of language. Every specialty has its own jargon for this exact reason.

JohnFen 4y ago

But that exchange is also the result of an ambiguity. If you ask someone what they want for dinner, they're looking for a positive response -- what do they want for dinner? This could be "nothing in particular". But that's an entirely different thing from what you didn't ask: "what don't you want for dinner". You can not have a preference for your meal, but still have a list of things you don't like. This is like asking someone if they like a particular sort of food. The answer can be "no" even if they're fine eating it. Not liking (preferring) a food is a different thing than disliking a food.

PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
"Anything's fine" is a denial of there being things that you don't want. But we understand, as humans/embodied systems, that this is a simply a spoken utterance whose actually meaning must be derived from personal knowledge of the speaker and/or further interaction. If you had no preference for the meal, but had things that you don't want to eat, then to be precsely correct you would not say "anything's fine". Something more like "there's nothing in particular that I want to eat". People don't speak in precisely correct ways, however, and we rely on contextual and personal knowledge to decode what they do say, very often.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  > People don't speak in precisely correct ways, however, and we rely on contextual and personal knowledge to decode what they do say, very often. Yes, this is the crux of the issue. The exact meaning of the words we say when we talk to each other are not usually the most information-bearing part of the communication. I think this is why when people need to communicate with precision, or over media that doesn't allow anything but language, they adopt a specialized sort of language. Every specialty has its own jargon for this exact reason.