Hi,
I don't know if the topic of oceans is all in jest or not. Perhaps some people may not detect the spoof if it does exist in this topic. However, I want to say something about the topic. My post is not meant to belittle anyone.
mkg335:Australia and Antarctica make seven. Oddly enough there's only one ocean, people just give parts of it different names.
;-)
While I see how all of the world's oceanic water can be considered as one body of water, "ocean" is a word that describes an idea/concept or thing. If there is only one "ocean," I believe we have to define what it is that the word "ocean" is representing in order to unambiguously communicate.
alanti:
mkg335: Oddly enough there's only one ocean, people just give parts of it different names.
I used this answer in a school exam (many moons ago) and when it was marked with a big red cross next to it, I complained vociferously. Well after a visit to the principals office and a weeks worth of detentions for being a smart ass, I learnt there is a time to be witty and a time to tow the company line.
But smugly I knew I was right.
I believe that if a student defines the entire collection of oceanic water that is on the earth as an "ocean," then that is what it is as that student defined it.
But, if other people such as school administrators define an "ocean" as a particular region of a single mass of water (i.e., what the student defined as one "ocean" but what the school administrators do not define as such), then that is what it is when the administrators use the word "ocean," not what the student defined that word to represent in his personal standard.
mkg335: Damn right you were right, but a valuable lesson learned about choosing one's battles and the innate arrogance of bureaucratic authority.
The school officials may be/may have been loveless and unduly harsh, and perhaps even arrogant, when speaking to the student about such a topic, but not necessarily because of being "wrong" about the topic.
Yes, the student may have been right about his definition of "ocean," but I believe that does not inherently indicate that the officials were or are wrong, arrogant or worthy of being battled for being wrong (i.e., using the word "ocean" contrary to their own standard) about the usage of a word that they (NOT the student) defined.
I am convinced that if the student can be correct about what the word "ocean" represents (i.e., the entire mass of oceanic water on planet earth) according to his personal standard, then the school officials can be correct about what the word "ocean" represents (i.e., particularly defined regions of the entire mass of oceanic water on planet earth) according to their standard.
If, in an exam administered by the officials who have defined what the word "ocean" represents, a student uses the word "ocean" according to any standard differing from the one that the officials created for the exam, because the usage is not in accordance with the school officials' standard, that student's usage is incorrect (as the student's usage relates to the school's standard) regardless of how correct it is according to the student's personal standard.
And if the "bureaucratic authority" is displaying "innate arrogance" for telling the student what they signify by the word "ocean" when they use it in such an exam, then isn't the student also displaying "innate arrogance" for doing the same thing?
In my view, anyone secretly despising such administrators or openly saying that they are "arrogant" or "wrong" (i.e., not in accordance with the standard that they the administrators created) for employing the word "ocean" to represent a concept or physical thing that they designated it to represent possibly is simply misguided or may actually be the one who is displaying arrogance and being presumptuously contentious and still needs to learn valuable lessons about recognizing and eliminating one's own costly conceit.
skccvb: It might help if you set criteria for what "BEST" might be.
As for the topic of who the best wgt golfer is, I think setting criteria is an essential element of any legitimate determination of the topic.
Thanks,
JMan