Re: Vulgar Latin

Tom Wier wrote:

> (You can't just say there's a general property of the ending that makes
> it act the way it does, because it doesn't lead to a very insightful
> understanding of the behavior we see in the data.  This is like Aristotle's
> comment that things fall because they have a natural tendency to do
> so -- the question is why do they do so?)
Right.  Northrop Frye calls this the fallacy of premature teleology.
Other examples:  "That is so [in the order of nature] because Providence
in its inscrutable wisdom made it so."  "The meaning [in the order of art]
is what the creator intended it to mean."

And, of course, "Opium puts people to sleep because of its dormitive
faculty."  -- Moliere.

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