Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Flirting Again
My paper on the philosophy of flirting will be coming out in The Philosophers' Magazine, so this is to say thanks to all the people who sent me comments after I posted a draft here. Unfortunately TPM won't let me include any acknowledgements in the actual article, but be assured that I am grateful for all the comments it received! Here is the probably-final version.
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4 comments:
Hi John,
Yes, a few people have made this comment to me in response to my paper. My take is that ineptitude leads to poor quality flirting, and flirting that fails to achieve its goals, rather than failure to flirt. But you're not alone in your view. (I might be alone in mine ...!)
Hi Mark,
Though of course it could be said that the reason it doesn't sound like a good excuse is that the intention is bad enough by itself!
Carrie, one of your necessary conditions is this,
"... the flirter should act with the intention to raise flirter/flirtee romance and/or sex to salience, in a knowing yet playful way."
But suppose the would-be flirter F intends to realize some atypical goal by flirting with F'. Suppose for instance that Smith has a weapon trained on F and F' and F knows that Smith never shoots people that are flirting. Mightn't F begin to flirt with F' without intending anything like raising romance to salience? He might know that flirting typically has that result, but (it seems) he need not intend that result. Still, he intends to flirt, since that is the way to keep them both alive.
After defining the sufficient and necessary conditions of the act of flirting is even possible to characterise the performative use of language during flirting (it is never a statement or declarative until it not leads to succesful fruition when in fact leaves to be flirting; it is never imperative or a request because if not leads to sexual assault connotations; it is never a promise because flirting is an on-line process without time delay, it is never a question, a thanksgiving...)perhaps it is methaphorical and figurative or action based and constructive its linguistic performance where the intentions of the flirter and the flirtee are shape simultaneously.
Luck with this field.
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