#Conversational Principles

[omegaphilosophia]

The Philosophy of Pragmatics

The philosophy of pragmatics is a branch of philosophy that focuses on the study of language use in context, particularly the ways in which speakers use language to communicate effectively and achieve their communicative goals. Pragmatics is concerned with how meaning is inferred from context, how speakers convey and interpret meaning beyond the literal content of their words, and how language is used to perform actions and achieve social purposes.

Key aspects of the philosophy of pragmatics include:

Speech Acts: Pragmatics examines the performative aspect of language, studying how utterances are used to perform actions and bring about changes in the world. Speech act theory, developed by philosophers such as J.L. Austin and John Searle, investigates the illocutionary force of utterances (what speakers do in uttering sentences) and the perlocutionary effects of utterances (the effects they have on hearers).

Implicature and Inference: Pragmatics explores implicature, which refers to the meaning that is conveyed indirectly or implied by an utterance beyond its literal meaning. Philosophers analyze how hearers infer implicatures based on conversational context, background knowledge, and pragmatic principles. Gricean maxims, formulated by philosopher H.P. Grice, outline principles of conversation that guide speakers and hearers in cooperative communication.

Presupposition: Pragmatics investigates presupposition, which refers to the assumptions that speakers make about what their interlocutors already know or accept as true. Philosophers examine how presuppositions are conveyed linguistically and how they affect the interpretation of utterances.

Context and Contextual Meaning: Pragmatics considers the role of context in shaping meaning and interpretation. Philosophers analyze how linguistic meaning is enriched or modified by contextual factors such as situational context, linguistic context, and social context.

Reference and Anaphora: Pragmatics explores issues related to reference and anaphora, studying how speakers refer to entities in the world and how they establish coherence and cohesion in discourse through pronouns, demonstratives, and other referring expressions.

Politeness and Face: Pragmatics examines politeness and face-saving strategies in communication, investigating how speakers manage interpersonal relationships and social status through language use.

Overall, the philosophy of pragmatics offers insights into the dynamic and interactive nature of language use, shedding light on how speakers navigate the complexities of communication to convey meaning effectively and achieve their communicative goals.

[cactusflowerfemme]

Alright, I'm gonna need you guys to stop joking about ending women's suffrage because you don't like how some women are voting. You know that's called supression of dissendent opinion, right? And it's like the opposite of democracy?

[discododging]

It's fitting that Dan Fucks is about to become the mayor because everyone in this brain is fucking horny right now

[clandestinegardenias]

Look, I understand the desire for a revolution. I do. And it’s possible I might be convinced that we need one, at some point. I am open to the idea that I might be wrong!

But…literal Marxist theory posits that the way you get to a communist society is by working your way through a democracy. That’s the first STEP. Then you move to democratic socialism, then socialism, then communism. Anything that moves us away from a democracy (as I’m concerned another Trump presidency would, that man wants to be a dictator so bad) is a step AWAY from a leftist agenda. Because sure, maybe you get your ‘glorious revolution’ if Trump is president because he literally makes living conditions so unbearable that it triggers widespread revolt but from a critical Marxist standpoint you’d be revolting to get back to a democracy so you can start at that step all over again! This is a big reason theorists posit socialism/communism in the Soviet Union fell apart; too big a change too quickly and skipping steps in between.

We also have to consider that getting to the point of full blown revolution would mean catastrophic levels of suffering for people with lower socioeconomic power—POC, the queer community, folks in poverty, people with disabilities, etc.

AND any US dictatorship or similar government has an entire industrial military complex to back it up. A successful revolution would necessitate either getting that military complex on board, in which case you often end up with a military dictatorship (you can imagine how well THAT goes) or beating it which…I’m sorry, even the entire civilian population of the US cannot do. The military is light years more advanced than it was in Marx’s time, rebellion is so so so so much more complicated. It also sets a precedent for violent exchanges of power that tend to set countries up for a decades/centuries long tailspin of military coups in which the people with the most gun power (again…usually not vulnerable groups) win control.

I’m not trying to be a fatalist, here. I actually think fatalism is a tool of the oppressor and we have to fight against it tooth and nail. I’m just trying to logic out what will happen if Kamala/Walz lose and Trump/Vance win. What does that really look like? What is the next step, the next outcome that will lead us to a better place? And I just cannot, for those reasons above, see a Trump presidency leading us anywhere good. That IS what we will get if people hold out on voting for Harris as a form of protest. I’m all for protest!!!!! But it needs to be in a different avenue, because you have to consider the real life repercussions not voting will have.

I mean, what are the options? What happens if people protest by not voting? (...this assumes you don't start from the position that Harris and Trump will be literally NO different in office, which, well, that's another post)

1. Harris wins regardless, but a signal is sent that people to the left aren’t appeased and democrats need to do more. How effective this would be in moving actual policy is debateable, and it also puts the moral onus/responsibility conveniently on others just so you can feel like your hands are clean while simultaneously risking a worse outcome. Not cool.

2. Trump wins. Far more likely because, as we saw in 2020, the country was nearly evenly split on Trump vs. Biden. Current polling shows more or less the same with Trump vs. Harris. If the left stays home, the likelihood Trump wins skyrockets. So, what happens next?

2.A. Trump wins, but the world doesn’t end. He doesn’t do anything too terribly awful. The left has ideally signaled they will only vote for a Dem if they are liberal enough. I seriously doubt Trump won’t do anything too terribly awful though—look at what his first presidency did!!! Look at Project 2025!!!!! So. Other option.

2.B. Trump wins and the world is on fire. He strips away womens’ rights, queer rights, he tanks the working class and worker protections, starts a war, starts a dictatorship, whatever. He already started a lot of this during his first presidency. In this case, either…

2.B.1. This is still not enough to trigger a revolution. Vulnerable people are hurt and die at a far greater pace than under a Democratic presidency. We go on as before, fighting to regain key protections. Perhaps the Dems put forward a more liberal candidate to try and beat him next time, if democracy still exists, but likely? We end up with a conservative centrist anyway.

2.B.2. Trump does trigger a revolution. All I can see is how many vulnerable people would suffer and die. The military HAS to be involved and either takes control of government (terrible start to socialism!!!!!) or kills revolutionaries en masse and the rebellion fails. If civilians somehow defeated the US military, which is an astronomically low possibility, then we set up a more liberal democracy...how, exactly? With all the conservatives and moderates still in our country? Honestly, HOW. Kill them? Try and make them ‘see the light’? That happens via education, not a civil war. We could try and go straight to communism but theory and history show us that doesn’t work—you have to work your way towards it through democracy.

It is SO much more efficient and would put so many fewer vulnerable people in grave danger to start by keeping the democracy we already have by voting in Harris and THEN working on our protests to shift the needle towards democratic socialism. We’ve seen that these protests CAN WORK!!!!! They got us Biden dropping out!!!!! Harris picked a VP far more appealing to a liberal mindset than many of her other top options! WE ARE ALREADY SHIFTING THE NEEDLE. Keep it shifting, don’t give in to fatalism, and remember that you have to go through the steps to have an actual, stable, reliable socialist or communist republic. Vote.

[venndaai]

just talked to my 91 year old friend (lifelong Republican voter, surrounded her whole life by lifelong Republican voters) who said "I can't believe I'm not voting this year because there's no one I can bring myself to vote for... but I'm sure I'm not alone" and I said "yup you sure aren't"

[yandere-daydreams]

Not too sure if you keep up with jp twst updates but have you seen the new Halloween update with the fox dude, Honest Fellow? (Yes that's his name, I'm just gonna call him honest John cause his name's an adjective). I am seriously loving how expressive he is, his devious expressions are so good

i am keeping very up to date with what y'all are doing over there and so far i've been delighted by the idea that, while half of the school's named population is experiencing a prolonged hatecrime in a french catholic school, the other half will be running away to nonconsensual join a circus led by a catboy and nick wilde's humansona. i don't know enough about him to have any major thoughts, but rollo was so fun and it seems like they'll be going just as hard for this event as they did for the glorious masquerade. any event with an ortho ssr is bound to slap and i have no reason to doubt that honest fellow (because i refuse to disrespect such a brave naming choice) will contribute to that.

i don't usually read translations for events but i think i might at least find a summary or something, this time. there's just something about a deceptively charming ringleader with a habit of luring people into his pocket-reality fantasy land that feels like it would go really well with what i do here.

[vaguely-concerned]

trying to look for a ttrpg group in spaces where I can't just go 'listen I want to play this shit in the tumblr fandom kind of model (gay subtext extremely welcome bordering on essential, mutual unhinged character psychoanalysis, we could create a novel of a backstory together to make this sadder, let's all play with our OC dolls together and also sometimes dice are rolled I guess)' and be readily understood and/or not be immediately side-eyed or denigrated for my inherent unavoidable tumblerinaness feels like such an annoying debuff to deal with on the quest. like I know my people exist out there but how do I express myself in the right way and wade through all the copious not-it (not for me) dynamics to find them!!!

[ask-richard-jackdaw]

[Just a general reminder for those who roleplay: make sure you don't dictate other characters' actions and feelings in your asks and replies ☺️ Nobody wants to have their autonomy taken away! If you really want to make your intent known, instead of writing "He hugs her" try "He makes a move to hug her", "He attempts to hug her", "You can see it in his eyes that he wants to hug her", and so on. That way the other character can change the narrative if they are uncomfortable 🫂. But even in that case they are not obligated to reply and you should respect that.

And if you think that nobody is interested in your blog — I guarantee it's not the case! Chances are, not that many people know about your OC/MC/character you play so try to put yourself out there! Engage with people! Send asks, write replies, do reblogs, DM if you have any questions or if it puts your mind at ease before plunging into rp! I know it's hard if you're a shy or reserved person. But nobody else can solve this for you 🫂 ]

[corfisers]

what hurts about saezuru in a more subtle way is that yashiro can't fully trust even nanahara. he's the safest man for him to be around (in my opinion), he's not at risk of sexual or physical violence with him, nanahara genuinely cares about, loves and respects yashiro while not ignoring his flaws, and he's willing to put his own life on the line for his sake if needed. but he still has to answer to misumi and amou, he's still part of the system. and he loves it, he wants to stay, he wants yashiro to get a group again, it's the only way of living he's ever known. it sucks, doesn't it? you have this one person who's been around you for years, who cares so much that it gets to the point of being annoying at times, who will jump in front of a bullet on instinct, and yet you still have to be painfully aware that you can't trust him with everything, that he still might get you in trouble just because he's part of the same system that's been hurting you for decades.

[dramatic-dolphin]

usually i try to respect strangers' privacy and not listen in on their phone conversations (<- lie, i'm a nosy bitch) but this girl on the tram was speaking in such a fascinating mixture of hungarian and arabic, i could listen to it for hours

[yuriyuruandyuraart]

Are you aware that I'm-a-gay-fish and Zu ship dr//m/are ?/genq

okay so it took me a while to answer this but i finally found the words to so here goes; yeah i do know, and i totally understand if you don't ship it, neither do i, but there's nothing i can do about it?

they're allowed, so long as they don't harm people, to do whatever they want on their own platforms. and before you ask me if i support *ncest, would you actually ask someone if they support toxic relationships and murder whenever they ship two unhealthy killers with mental problems? because that's funnily enough what most people do around here! you can say it's not the same, and that they're romanticizing it, but i can personally detach myself from fiction enough to realize that while this concept depicted in their art shouldn't be recreated in real life, that doesn't mean they actually engage or support people that do that irl- they asked zu the same question so many times, and frog doesn't either and i've known gayfish for three years! you're well within your right to stop associating with them or distance yourself from their content but i myself won't.

i know fiction affects reality to a degree, don't twist my words please, but if you're too young to consume that kind of content with a nuanced perspective or is triggered/affected by it then as long as they tag their content properly then you can unfollow, block and move on. i have a habit of following and reblogging people's works before looking at their bios and before i know it find myself having to choose between two sides i don't belong to and i frankly don't want to! anti this or proship that- in this online era you have to adapt by keeping your cool and curating your own online experience and viewing people in black and whites is stressful, painful and dangerous for everyone involved. i don't even reblog the content you probably have a problem with, and i'm honestly still scared of the response i'll get-

i will not blame or hate whoever unfollows or blocks me for this, it's to be expected, but please don't think about it like some bad vs good guys dilemma? sometimes thought provoking morally grey ambiguous stories with messed up characters spark more positive discussion and healing than people looking into it because they suffer from the same delusions and want a justification-

like realistically, in my blog, most ppl here are basically shipping two literal skeletons with magic in their bones who are sometimes almost the exact copy of one another, and who theoretically have a very similar dna, and sometimes they make shipkids, which, if you know anything about *ncest, is one of the main reasons why you shouldn't bang your siblings - mostly from a moral standpoint because that's so gross i can't even think of it, but also because any offspring would suffer greatly from physical and mental diseases hidden in their genetic code- like. you could argue it's not the same but it's sancest for a reason. and even when they're widely different sanses, you wouldn't think fell x sans is wrong (at least in this specific community) but really we've all just gotten numb to how weird that sounds. trust me, there's a reason we don't talk about our ships to outsiders HHH

TL,DR: so while i greatly encourage you to block people and content you don't want to see/associate with, including me! i hope i made it clear why i, personally, don't care about dreammare and whoever ships it.

[gravitasmalfunction]

Craft club delivered yet another clanger of an overheard conversation in the form of two older ladies discussing how they've learned to express themselves more clearly about what they want, to lean in to prioritising things they themselves like and find interesting instead of putting themselves second by default, and breaking the habit of not spending money on themselves. And I was so proud and happy for them until one said, "You just have to tell them what you want, they [men] are hardwired to provide and protect!" and what little was left of my soul departed my body for good.

[squishyliger]

I think the thing ppl don’t get whenever ppl make art of sexy nuns or make commentary comics about priests being pedo perverts is that it gives ppl the power to lightly strip that religion of it’s overwhelming power it has over their lives.

like I think it’d be one thing if christianity was just a normal chill religion with maybe a handful of nuts but the fact that the nuts have political & intuitional power over us and use that power to make the lives of people worse…

like idk I could be wrong but I feel like I have the right to make art of a busty furry nun drinking piss because of that maybe

[elephantbitterhead]

Having finally been driven to blacklisting content, I'd like to take this moment to say that no annoying/overexposed/boring/formulaic/etc. musician will ever be as irritating to me as their fans and their haters are.

[shiroikabocha]

due to unforeseen circumstances I will not be choosing this dialogue option

[blujayonthewing]

thinkin again about the time elyss's DM cut in to stop a conversation between her and a semi-retired player character to hurriedly take back control of him as an NPC before he could give her, as an extremely kind and thoughtful gift, one of his own personal belongings, and then said 'elyss can probably buy it from him though :)' instead

like. what an egregiously fucking shitty thing to do, actually.