Seamus

1,271 reputation

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bio	website	seamusbradley.net
	location	Munich, Germany
	age	27
visits	member for	2 years, 9 months
	seen	Apr 12 at 2:14
stats	profile views	143

I am a postdoc in philosophy.

I contribute to a blog for philosophers who use LaTeX. If you fall in to that niche, check it out: PhilTeX. (The blog will be of use to all kind of humanities scholars using LaTeX, I imagine, but it was started by, and is run by philosophers...) The blog is currently defunct, but may be resurrected soon.

I made this beamer colour change package that slowly changes the colour of structure elements of beamer presentations. Feedback welcome. I also made this moreenum package which adds new enumeration options. The TeX goodies page of my website includes some other bits and bobs I've done.

	1,271 reputation	bio	website	seamusbradley.net	visits	member for	2 years, 9 months
322 badges		location	Munich, Germany		seen	Apr 12 at 2:14

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Jun 14	comment	How does a word come to have two completely opposite meanings? Language log seem to be suggesting that at least as far back as Aristotle it was a term for a kind of circular reasoning
Jun 14	comment	How does a word come to have two completely opposite meanings? @Unreason language is conventional sure. That doesn't mean people can't be ignorant of the proper conventions. And the conventions change over time, sure. But that doesn't mean that words don't have "correct" meanings.
Jun 14	comment	How does a word come to have two completely opposite meanings? "begs the question" originally meant "presupposes an answer to the question" rather than "ignores the question", right?
Jun 14	comment	How does a word come to have two completely opposite meanings? That seems such an incredible coincidence, though, doesn't it? That two words with completely distinct (actually opposite) meanings, and distinct pronounciations should converge over time.
Jun 14	comment	How does a word come to have two completely opposite meanings? I like the ignorance explanation, like the use of "literally" to mean (effectively) "figuratively" as in Unreason's answer...
Jun 14	asked	How does a word come to have two completely opposite meanings?
May 10	awarded	Nice Answer
Mar 16	comment	Descriptivism and widespread misspelling @jgbelacqua Straw person? Really? That's how far politcal correctness has gone?
Mar 10	awarded	Nice Question
Mar 10	awarded	Cleanup
Mar 10	revised	Whose usage determines correctness? rolled back to a previous revision
Mar 10	comment	How/From where did the term “paradigm shift” originate? @aristoex could you update your answer to add a caveat about the fact that the early century ripple is probably a bug in ngram?
Mar 10	comment	How/From where did the term “paradigm shift” originate? @kiamlaluno You really want that reputation back that much? That seems a little petty... Given the other answers to this question, I don't think your answer is really adding anything. If you want your rep back you can delete your answer.
Mar 10	comment	How/From where did the term “paradigm shift” originate? @kiamlaluno I don't. Because it looks like in this instance they are wrong. And therefore I think your answer is wrong.
Mar 10	comment	How/From where did the term “paradigm shift” originate? @kiamlaluno why would you report something you don't believe to be true? "some source I don't trust said X" is not a good answer to a question.
Mar 9	comment	How/From where did the term “paradigm shift” originate? @kiamlaluno The OED I looked at rightly points at Kuhn (1962) as the origin. What do you think origin means? It certainly doesn't mean "the point at which something became widely used". As I said before, I believe it is typical for dictionaries to try and find the first documented use of a word. This fits with my understanding of what "origin" means.
Mar 9	comment	How/From where did the term “paradigm shift” originate? @kiamlaluno As someone who has studied philosophy of science I know that Kuhn uses "paradigm shift" in Structure of Scientific Revolutions so I know the phrases dates back to at least 1962. I'm not basing my knowledge on what the OED says: I'm basing it on weeks spent reading Kuhn and about Kuhn. Corroboration from google books
Mar 9	comment	How/From where did the term “paradigm shift” originate? @kiamlaluno the dictionary is wrong to claim the origin of the term is the 1970s. I'm not downvoting because you use a different dictionary, I'm downvoting because this is the wrong answer to the question that was asked.
Mar 9	comment	How/From where did the term “paradigm shift” originate? @kiamlaluno I think you are just wrong that the NOAD lists words from when they are first in "wide use": the NOAD is from the same publishers as OED and I doubt their editorial policies differ that much. If the question is "when did the phrase originate?" then an answer to "when did the word gain wide use?" is not a good answer. Why the NOAD lists 1970s is a mystery, however.
Mar 9	comment	How/From where did the term “paradigm shift” originate? @kiamlaluno I believe the OED's policy is to report the first documented use of the word. But only for words that are actually in use. So in 1962 the OED wouldn't have had an entry for paradigm shift, even though it had been used. But once it was in wide use, then its origin dates back to its first use. This is surely the only way to do things. How would you adjudicate when a word came into "widespread use"?