Thursday, September 23, 2004

Maverick Philosopher on Framing

Small world! On the framing issue, I find that Bill Vallicella, the Maverick Philosopher, has posted his response to a Lakoff interview. Criticizing interviews is tricky, but the characterization of the liberal/conservative divide in terms of the "strict father" vs. "nuturant parent" thing is found elsewhere. I find that part a bizarre. As I noted in an aside in my first post on the issue:

And what's up with Lakoff's 'strict father' and 'nurturant parent' models? Does he only study people who like big government?

But I've since realized something: he's trying to nudge the issue by his characterization (in other words, he's framing). Who would deny that a nurturing parent is more desirable than a strict father? I'm glad he stopped a bit short of contrasting the loving mother with the strict step-mother; but he's only just short of framing it all as a fairy tale.