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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   3084 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 12, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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When you are recalling a past event, do you imagine the transpired events as a series of still images of as “clips” of videos? Or as something else?

When people who can’t imagine things vividly in their mind’s eye are recalling something from the past, what exactly are they recalling? Words?

Depends on how clear the memory is.

Some are like clips, with some being closer to full color and others being more faded. Some memories are more like still images, once again sometimes the colors are retained sometimes not.

For any memories that are just words, it's either a case of it literally being a memory of something heard or read or it's something that I used to have a more vivid memory of, but can now only recognize as a factual statement about my past.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

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