What Skeptic means

Darat said:
Apart from the fact that the word "skeptic" isn't used in Greek.
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Whether or not it's used in Greek, and what it means in Greek if it is used, are irrelevant: as far as this forum (and the JREF in general) is concerned it's used as an English word, so it is its meaning in English that is relevant here. The entire premise of the OP is nonsense.
 
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Mojo said:
Whether or not it's used in Greek, and what it means in Greek if it is used, are irrelevant: as far as this forum (and the JREF in general) is concerned it's used as an English word, so it is its meaning in English that is relevant here. The entire premise of the OP is nonsense.
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I agree - that's probably why the only interesting point in the OP for me was this idea that in the Greek languages they use the word "skeptic" with a different meaning.
 
H3LL said:
So, as I understand it:

Everyone on this forum using Greek to post is using sceptic/skeptic incorrectly and truehat's husband is right.

All those using English to post are using sceptic/skeptic correctly and truehat's husband is wrong.

Am I missing something?

.
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Nope. It's truethat and Amywilson who are missing something. I'm guessing marbles. Some synapses aren't connecting either. Maybe we can get them to talk to each other for our amusement. But that's the problem with assorted woo... they don't speak each other's woo.... because they each have their own woo-- the "true woo". They all seem to be having some barely coherent "conversation" that is going on between them and the voices in their head. And it's some weird battle that they are "winning" while everyone else seems to not even understand the game.

All woo is greek to me. But they do amuse.
 
truethat said:
It was a discussion. But par for the course for this site its dissolved into a competition.
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Maybe it's you.

Maybe your communication skills aren't quite as savvy as your Greek husband and you seem to imagine them to be.
 
articulett said:
Maybe it's you.

Maybe your communication skills aren't quite as savvy as your Greek husband and you seem to imagine them to be.
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The reading comprehension skills don't appear to be up to much either: the OP actually quotes a list of English definitions of "skeptic", one of which corresponds pretty much exactly to the one truethat is objecting to, and none of which correspond to her husband's definition (neither does the Greek root of the word quoted there: "skeptesthai, to examine").
 
Darat said:
Well for me it wasn't quite that - the opening post mentioned something that I hadn't come across before i.e. that the Greeks use the word "skeptic" but it means something different to the English word. So I went looking to see if that was the case because I found the idea mildly interesting. Yes it is a bit of an off-shoot from the main thrust of the OP but it was directly addressing a claim made in the opening post so I think it was legitimate point to look at.
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I thought what you found was interesting (and legitimate despite her complaints). I also consulted my version of a greek dictionary, which is really an old medical dictionary. For skeptiko it gives "doubtful". So I guess the question really is, did we doubt her claim or did we think about her claim?

Linda
 
fls said:
I thought what you found was interesting (and legitimate despite her complaints). I also consulted my version of a greek dictionary, which is really an old medical dictionary. For skeptiko it gives "doubtful". So I guess the question really is, did we doubt her claim or did we think about her claim?

Linda
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I thought about it - but my thoughts were that it was quite doubtful.
 
Mojo said:
Whether or not it's used in Greek, and what it means in Greek if it is used, are irrelevant: as far as this forum (and the JREF in general) is concerned it's used as an English word, so it is its meaning in English that is relevant here. The entire premise of the OP is nonsense.
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Indeed :)

Dictionary.com » Word FAQs » Trivia
How does a word get into the dictionary?
How can I get my word into the dictionary?

A word gets into the dictionary by being used.

That's the only way.

Lexicographers - the people who make dictionaries - don't make words; they find them and record them.

They are like the entomologist who goes into the rain forest looking for new species of beetles.

Similarly, you can't invent a word and petition to have it admitted into the dictionary.

You can invent a word and use it, of course, and if your word catches on it might end up in the dictionary some day.

However, this is extremely unlikely.
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No mention of re-inventing a word... perhaps because the likelihood of that being accepted is infinitely improbable


entomologist: according to etymonline.com that's a word with Greek origins...

Study of bugs 'n' stuff...

Dare say we've found one or two

Ctrl + Alt + DELETE
 
I think we're all being a little hard on truethat with the semantics, but truethat, if you are still watching on, you must surely admit that you did set yourself up for a sucker punch. To enquire of a bunch of self-confessed sceptics subscribing to this forum (and I see you're not exactly a stranger to these parts) whether they agree that sceptics are essentially a bunch of closed-minded ostriches is analogous to asking a janitor (or is that "custodian" - a la "Everybody Loves Raymond") whether he'd rather be a doctor. Come on truethat, what did you expect? Or were you just trying to stir some proverbial to observe the fall-out as part of a psychological experiment? Whichever, I suggest you cultivate a few layers of extra skin if you're planning on sticking around.
 
No I don't have thin skin and I don't mind attack. My husband was laughing his ass off at the people on here. There's a fine line between being cleverly snarky and just being a fool to win an argument.

The word skeptic in Greek means thinker. I don't care what your Greek dictionaries say, contact a Greek speaking person. It is a regular word used every day to mean thinking.

He thought it was hysterical that a bunch of people sat around with Greek dictionaries telling a Greek speaking person they were wrong about their language.

I think the whole things is a real indicator of what is wrong with the way people's intelligence is grown in the world today that the authority of a quick sound bite or a random snatch from a dictionary byline is supposed to be enough "EVIDENCE" to trump someone who actually speaks the language.

I don't want to say what that comes across to me. But it ain't smart.
 
Well she has declared herself a "TRUE SKEPTIC" on another thread. So I guess that makes it so. And her husband agrees, so it must be true.
 
truethat said:
...snip...

The word skeptic in Greek means thinker. I don't care what your Greek dictionaries say, contact a Greek speaking person. It is a regular word used every day to mean thinking.

...snip...
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So far I have provided sources for what I claim, you have not however provided any evidence anyone else can check on, the ball is firmly in your court if you want to convince anyone your claim is correct.

A simple way for you to do so would be to use say an on line Greek dictionary that list the word "skeptic" and defines it as "thinker".
 
I do have evidence that is outside your comprehension. This is like you saying that I need to dumb down physics to explain it to someone who doesn't understand it because if I don't explain it to the person, its not true. Well if the person can't understand it, its their problem. Not mine.
 
It isn't. Its I know Greek speaking people and word Skeptic means thinker in Greek.

So sorry that you all seem to think you can have an opinion about something you don't understand.

You see this is the basis of my original post. So thanks for proving it rightly. Because what I see a lot on here is not THINKING and then being skeptical but just knee jerk, wanna be right competition. And that is not the same thing as trying to get at the truth of the matter.

The truth is what I posted. But you aren't interested in the truth. You are interested in winning a contest.

But here anyway, this article which I googled (which seems to be what you all consider an education around here, that and Wikipedia) goes into more of what I was intending with the original post.

http://www.realityspoken.com/skeptic.htm


This sums up what I was intending to say.

It is the application of reason to any and all ideas—no sacred cows allowed. In other words, skepticism is a method, not a position.
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truethat said:
I do have evidence that is outside your comprehension. This is like you saying that I need to dumb down physics to explain it to someone who doesn't understand it because if I don't explain it to the person, its not true. Well if the person can't understand it, its their problem. Not mine.
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Your analogy fails since in this instance your only evidence is "what my husband has told me" which as I said is evidence that no one else can check on.

On the other hand I went to look at several sources to see if I could find evidence for your claim and as I said I could find no evidence at all and indeed found evidence that contradicts your claim i.e. that the word "skeptic" is not a word used in the Greek language.

If I am wrong it should be quite easy for you to show that I am wrong by for example using a on-line Greek dictionary. One of the reasons by the way that I was doubtful about your original claim is that I can read quite a bit of Greek and I had never seen (even in Greek "skeptical" articles) the word "skeptic" being used.
 
truethat said:
No I don't have thin skin and I don't mind attack. My husband was laughing his ass off at the people on here. There's a fine line between being cleverly snarky and just being a fool to win an argument.

The word skeptic in Greek means thinker. I don't care what your Greek dictionaries say, contact a Greek speaking person. It is a regular word used every day to mean thinking.

He thought it was hysterical that a bunch of people sat around with Greek dictionaries telling a Greek speaking person they were wrong about their language.

I think the whole things is a real indicator of what is wrong with the way people's intelligence is grown in the world today that the authority of a quick sound bite or a random snatch from a dictionary byline is supposed to be enough "EVIDENCE" to trump someone who actually speaks the language.

I don't want to say what that comes across to me. But it ain't smart.
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Just because he's Greek, doesn't mean he speaks the language properly.

Or are you saying someone in Queens or the Bronx or a Cajun or a hick from Kentucky is going to always speak American-English correctly?

I'm sure the Greek have a few idiots, too.

The fact of the matter is, if your husband says that "skeptic" is a common Greek word with the meaning of 'thinker', he's wrong, period, point blank, full stop. And the fact of the matter is, a native Greek speaker is MORE likely to be wrong about the facts of his own language, than the scholars and academics who, themselves, are ALSO native Greek speakers, but have the additional benefit of education and experience, who write these lexicons. That's just a fact, TT.

The history of the term 'skeptic' is steeped in doubt and in critical examination of facts; they were opposing the Stoics and the Dogmatics - who styled themselves as 'thinkers' - so 'skeptic' from the onset has ALWAYS referred to doubting and critical thinking, not to thinking.

So in both original AND modern usage, the term is not merely 'thinker', but 'critical thinker'.

Your husband is simply wrong. Deal with it.
 
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