Follow up to: Jumping Over The Is-Ought Gap (Draft) and My NaNoWriMo Dilemma

So after beginning a long trek toward my attempt to make sense of morality, beginning in “The Meaning of Morality” and ending with the most recent “Jumping Over The Is-Ought Gap (Draft)”, I still failed to be clear enough with what I was saying, and I confused a bunch of people.

Which is funny, because this is actually my third attempt to trace through morality on this blog. It’s a problem I keep revisting, and a problem I keep… well… messing up a bit. I think what this really does is serve a reminder to me that I’m never as clear as I think I am. Sure, I know what I mean by the words I try to say, but I can’t imagine how you guys feel, trying to piece together my paragraphs and understand what I’m saying without the added boost of having the knowledge of my intentions like I do. You don’t get to read what I meant, you only get to read what I actually say.

This is kind of sad, really, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t stop the connotations everyone — including me — try to smuggle in to the words we write and read, even unintentionally. I can’t stop the fact that other people will have different definitions than the ones I use, and read what I say with their definitions, despite not reading it. Heck, I do these things myself. I don’t blame anyone — I just want to be more effective.

This is why I devote myself to being an effective communicator of ideas, even when it doesn’t work. I recognize that it’s difficult work. But what I get to do is take another at-bat and try again tomorrow. I’ve been thinking a fair amount over the weekend, yesterday, and today, and I think I’ve identified where I didn’t communicate as effectively as I could have.

So I want to start a bit over, and rewind back to “Of Oughts and Is, Part III”, and restart my unravelling of the Is-Ought Problem. Given what I’v learned from my last failure with “My NaNoWriMo Dilemma”, I’m going to leave the last essay up with the discussion intact. I’ve retitled it Jumping Over The Is-Ought Gap (Draft). Tomorrow, I will write a new attempt at the problem.

All I ask, whether you’re following my morality series or not, is that you bear with me, give me more benefit of the doubt and interpretive charity, and wait for tomorrow, when I’ll try to begin attempt #4 — this time more careful, more slow, and more attention to detail.