4 ms·

Fairly big difference between asking "Why don't they...?" and "Why don't they just...?". The 'just' tacked onto the end of the beginning of the question implies

• antr 14y ago
  regardless of semantics, it is ignorance--not knowledge--that is the true engine of science
  • thaumaturgy 14y ago
    No. It is the desire for knowledge. I loathe semantic games in arguments as much as anyone, but I too often see "ignorance" being given some kind of special place in science, where it doesn't belong. There's a reason why NASA didn't just dedicate 8 years, $2.5 billion, and a tremendous amount of human effort to land a rover called "Ignorance" on another planet. Curiosity: in this glorious age of Google, Wikipedia, Wolfram-Alpha, and so many other free and readily available resources, it doesn't start with the words, "Why don't they just..."
    • antr 14y ago
      read ignorance as a lack of knowledge - not the voluntarily action to ignore.
      • batista 14y ago
        >read ignorance as a lack of knowledge - not the voluntarily action to ignore. Same thing. You cannot do anything with just "lack of knowledge", whereas you can do lots with either "knowledge" (e.g process it and extract more knowledge, conclusions, dis/prove theories etc) or curiosity (e.g obtain knowledge). Lack of knowledge is passive. Curiosity is active.
  • alistair77 14y ago
    "regardless of semantics". Why is this such a common phrase in debates? Semantics is the study of meaning in language. Requirements, code, comments and documentation are often much better when people do pay attention to semantics ;-)