| Actually, Christopher uses his own name (I know because the Seattle chapter of the SJC alumni association often lamented his unwillingness to get involved in their activities, when my wife was the Director of Alumni Activities). So it is not a question of an alias. we generally agree that a persons name refers to that person, and therefore that those things attributed to the name can be, within reason, attributed to the person. (This would apply to a nickname, as well, and therefore to an alias). On the assumption that the postings are mostly sincere, which is reasonable, at least, they give one a lot of good data from which more or less probable inferences may be drawn. There should, of course, be caution, as you suggest, since we do not have many cues or validators that are present in real life. In real life, we are in a better position to find out how true someone's account of himself is, or to use non- verbal cues, like expression, to augment our "reading" of him. Thus, some skepticism is warranted, but one is not without data from which to draw tentative conclusions......hate to post and run, but something just came up. Back later if possible....... |
