Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!rochester!ken
From: ken@cs.rochester.edu (Ken Yap)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: New Mailing List to Discuss Anarchism
Message-ID: <8770@sol.ARPA>
Date: 19 Apr 88 02:42:32 GMT
References: <14925@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <565@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu>
Reply-To: ken@cs.rochester.edu (Ken Yap)
Organization: U of Rochester, CS Dept, Rochester, NY
Lines: 31

What's in a name?

I usually look up my dictionary when people argue over words. Here's
what my dictionary (McQuarie) says about anarchy:

1. a state of society without government or law. 2. political and
social disorder due to absence of governmental control. 3. absence of
government or governmental restraint. 4. a theory which regards the
union of order with the absence of all direct or coercive government as
the political ideal. 5. confusion in general; disorder. [Gk. anarchia
lack of a ruler]

And about anarchism:

1. the doctrine (advocated under various forms) urging the abolition of
government and governmental restraint as the indispensable condition of
political and social liberty. 2. the methods or practices of
anarchists.

An interesting article I read in IEEE Transactions on Professional
Communications discusses the case of Lister's word "antiseptic".  The
current medical theory of his day was that sepsis was something that
happened to wounds spontaneously. Lister understood that carbolic acid
killed the micro-organisms that caused sepsis, but people didn't
understand what was novel about his method and thought the carbolic
acid did something to the flesh to prevent sepsis.  Lister's
unfortunate choice of nomenclature delayed recognition of his
contribution. Perhaps if he had used the word "aseptic" or even
"antibiotic"...

	Ken