Xref: utzoo misc.legal:5491 news.admin:3157 soc.women:12217
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!mcdchg!heiby
From: heiby@mcdchg.UUCP (Ron Heiby)
Newsgroups: misc.legal,news.admin,soc.women
Subject: Re: A real sweetheart
Message-ID: <11017@mcdchg.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jul 88 14:02:38 GMT
References: <12624@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: heiby@mcdchg.UUCP (Ron Heiby)
Organization: Motorola Microcomputer, Schaumburg, IL
Lines: 36

Mark Ethan Smith (era1987@violet.berkeley.edu) writes:
> Let's take another example.  Suppose I have always
> referred to all lawyers as prigs.
	[...]
> Do you
> think that the truth that she or he is, in reality and in fact, a prig,
> will serve me as an absolute defense in a harassment suit?

Interesting example.  Doesn't quite hit the mark, but is interesting
never-the-less.  The point at which it falls down is that whether a
given individual is or is not a prig is a matter of opinion, open to
debate, and subject to interpretation.  If you can find 100 lawyers that
agree on something (neat trick!), you could also find an equal number
who believe the opposite.  This is not proof of "priggishness", just
a bunch of people with the same opinion.  Since there is no "truth",
there is no "truth defense".

Other matters aren't so much matters of opinion.  The statement, "My
body is made up primarily of H2O molecules." is something which could
be verified analytically.  It isn't a matter of opinion.  It is a matter
of demonstratable fact.  Likewise, the statement, "John Q. Public has
two X chromosomes in each cell of her body." is something which can be
analytically determined by taking a representative sample of cells from
John.  These examples *can* have the word "truth" applied to them.  They
are not subjects of opinion.

BTW, My copy of the "Oxford American Dictionary" defines the word "prig"
as:
	prig (prig) n. a self-righteous person, one who
	    displays or demands exaggerated correctness,
	    especially in behavior.

I wonder if this term might apply to anyone around here?	;-)
-- 
Ron Heiby, heiby@mcdchg.UUCP	Moderator: comp.newprod & comp.unix
"Failure is one of the basic Freedoms!" The Doctor (in Robots of Death)