Re: GENIUS: without the political correctness

QueeneMUSE@aol.com
Mon, 13 Jan 1997 21:11:22 -0500 (EST)


In a message dated 97-01-13 17:22:15 EST, you write:

<< Genius n. (pl. geniuses or genii)

1 (pl. geniuses)
a. an exceptional intellectual or creative power or other natural
ability or tendency.
b. a person having this.

2 the tutelary spirit of a person, place, institution etc.

3 a person or spirit regarded as powerfully influencing a person for
good or evil.

4 the prevalent feeling or associations etc. of a nation, age, etc.

This is not a "my dictionary is better than yours" post, just an
observation that what order definitions appear in is largely irrelevant.
What is important is what is intended by the usage of a word and I think
it was quite clear from the original post what the author was trying to
say.
>>

I apolgize for any miscommunication, I was not implying that the dictionary
NUMBERS had any relevence... in fact I left them out for that reason..
The order in which they appear in my dictionary surprised me, in fact.
I had never heard of the Roman spirit guardian definition.

What I meant to show was that the word implies Arts, Sciences ( the very same
areas the Greeks applied for Muses) and the innate meaning is "one who has an
affinity for" something since birth. Now since I dont believe in spirits, but
I do believe in evolution and human persereverence, i think it is intersting
to look into that concept of Genuis, but not from a feminist *or* mysogenist
view.

As Extropian, to exemplify ourselves, to become smarter- is our goal, is it
not? Ovecomeing limits, regardless of sex, genetic prevalences ( I am
predisposed towards perfect rendering, it comes "naturally" - but I also want
to master the sciences and math) .
So again, I must have really botched up my attempt at opening up this thread
on GENIUS.

But it is an interesting thing that the word GENIUS, has origins based on
genere, which means produce.. and a "tutorial spirit" given at birth.

In other words, altough the dictionary has "spirit" as an early defintion I
did not mean to imply I believe in the concept.
I am an avid rationalist, and believe th old saw about inspiration and
persperation.