Date: Mon, 10 Feb 97 17:18 +0100
From: artefact-AT-t-online.de (M.Eldred_artefact)
Subject: jargon


Cologne, 07 February 1997

Bob Scheetz recently:
>>As it has ever been with Believers, you cannot address H's "thinking" 
critically, from outside the jargon.<<

OED: "jargon sb1. ... 1. The inarticulate utterance of birds, or a vocal sound 
resembling it; twittering, chattering. ... 2. A jingle or asonance of rimes. 
(rare) ... 5. A barbarous, rude, or debased language or variety of speech; a 
'lingo'; used esp. of a hybrid speech arising from a mixture of languages. Also 
applied contemptuously to a language by one who does not understand it. ... 6. 
Applied contemptuously to any mode of speech abounding in unfamiliary term, or 
peculiar to a particular set of persons, as the language of scholars or 
philosophers, the terminology of a science or art, or the cant of a class, sect, 
trade, or profession. ... 7. A medley or 'babel' of sounds."

So jargon is at root a matter of not understanding, either because the speaker 
talks unintelligibly or because what is spoken is beyond the listener's ken, 
thus provoking the latter's contempt for the former. 

Whenever someone claims that jargon is being spoken, it amounts to the claim 
that the language is unintelligible, like the twittering of birds. 

So, there would seem to be an inside and an outside to the circle of 
understanding with respect to H.'s language. But this does not exclude osmosis 
between the outside and the inside. 

When not understanding H. there are two options: Either waiting until some day 
one understands. Or claiming H.'s language is non-understandable (denying the 
poteniality of understanding), i.e. a useless prattle which parrots can learn to 
twitter amongst themselves. 

Bob:
>>...precluding the possibility of dialectic...<<

H. has a lot to say about why dialectic is an embarrassment to thinking, e.g. in 
GA55 'Heraklit' §2 b) S.33ff, but already in SZ. 

Cheers,
Michael
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