X-Message-Number: 12351 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: a truncated reply to Bob Ettinger Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 23:14:47 +1000 (EST) A short answer to Bob Ettinger: To what you say I will both agree and disagree. In the very first place, I was trying to summarize a complex question with a very brief answer, and it should be read as that, not as the whole of my belief on that issue. I DO think that "pleasure" really says nothing at all. (One interesting line of thought about the meanings of such broad words --- a line of thought I've run across, not original with me --- is that we have some nouns which in a sense serve as PROnouns. They have no more independent meaning that "he" or "they", but depend for their meaning on the persons or objects or etc that the conversation has previously referred to. So the word "pleasure" may be useful, but in itself tells us nothing). Depending on your response I'm happy to continue this line of discussion, but that's all for now. Best wishes and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12351