Also I don’t think the first point is correct. Does anyone think the Barker Center is dedicated to the study of whoever Barker is? Or William James Hall to William James? Or the various Harvard houses dedicated to the study of their namesakes?
Also “Georgian house” currently returns zero search results in the area.
elaboration on the first point—my initial arg is pretty weak. the more pressing concern is that i think names can sometimes be read as a casual endorsement, continuation of a legacy, or a reward for sponsorship (neither of which makes sense for us).
names attract more side-eyeing. Lowell house is constantly under fire because Abbott Lawrence Lowell was racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic; Indigenous Peoples’ Day has been adopted as a rejection of Columbus; etc. i don’t want to deal w problems because Petrov was a USSR soldier. William James was also a progenitor of all modern psych and a Harvard prof, which doesn’t really parallel well w/ using Parfit in the name for us. Safer route is to not use names, when equally good non-proper nouns exist.
i’m more concerned w/ “georgian house” as a general term; it seems odd because it’s like calling a building “art deco house”.
Also I don’t think the first point is correct. Does anyone think the Barker Center is dedicated to the study of whoever Barker is? Or William James Hall to William James? Or the various Harvard houses dedicated to the study of their namesakes?
Also “Georgian house” currently returns zero search results in the area.
elaboration on the first point—my initial arg is pretty weak. the more pressing concern is that i think names can sometimes be read as a casual endorsement, continuation of a legacy, or a reward for sponsorship (neither of which makes sense for us).
names attract more side-eyeing. Lowell house is constantly under fire because Abbott Lawrence Lowell was racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic; Indigenous Peoples’ Day has been adopted as a rejection of Columbus; etc. i don’t want to deal w problems because Petrov was a USSR soldier. William James was also a progenitor of all modern psych and a Harvard prof, which doesn’t really parallel well w/ using Parfit in the name for us. Safer route is to not use names, when equally good non-proper nouns exist.
i’m more concerned w/ “georgian house” as a general term; it seems odd because it’s like calling a building “art deco house”.
I agree with this point