Pitfalls of Polysemy

In the context of Philosophy of Science, we have previously posted essays on the theme “Discovery versus Invention”, tracking more broadly with (Platonic) Realism vs. Nominalism.    A rather recondite subject, but which you may read about here, if so inclined:

    https://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/search/label/discovery

Yet now, jarringly, in the day’s headlines, one reads of the fostering and festering of conspiracy theories to the effect that Covid was a deliberate laboratory product (a familiar meme, historically -- Ebola and whatever else).  To which the obvious logical response (distinct and independent from the many empirical shortcomings of such theories) is:  Cui prodest?  (Or, more forcefully, Cui effing prodest??!??)

Reportedly, something over a quarter of Americans believe this.  But what caught my eye is that nearly such a proportion of Frenchmen believe this;  and that, moreover, part of the genesis of this delusion stems from a semantic misapprehension:   an alleged polysemy of the word invention in French:

26 % des Français estiment ainsi que le SARS-CoV-2, le virus responsable de la pandémie actuelle, a été créé par l’homme. Aux Etats-Unis, selon une étude de journalism.org, ils sont même 29 % à adhérer à cette thèse pourtant battue en brèche par toutes les publications scientifiques.

Mi-mars, un internaute français scandalisé se filmait en train de commenter un brevet en virologie de l’Institut Pasteur portant sur « l’invention » (le terme juridique pour une découverte) d’un coronavirus de 2004. Bien que très mal renseignée, sa vidéo d’inspiration complotiste a été partagée plusieurs millions de fois avant d’être supprimée par Facebook.

--

https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2020/03/31/l-etrange-obsession-d-un-quart-des-francais-pour-la-these-du-virus-cree-en-laboratoire_6035093_4355770.html

Now, my trusty old two-volume Harrap’s (French => English) does report such a use of invention in specialized areas:

A[rchaic]: finding, discovery (still used in (a) Ecc]lesiastic]) : Invention de la (Sainte) Croix, Invention of the Cross; (b) Jur[istic]: invention d’un trésor, finding of a treasure trove.

We are put in mind of the old anecdote about the floorplan of the (American? British?) embassy in Berlin, during the 1930’s, whose floor-plan (obtained by the Germans) listed one room as a “powder-room”.  German intel (not philologists, it seems) interpreted this as designation a secret chamber  in which the devious Anglo-Saxons were storing gun-powder.

~

Historical note:  ‘finding’, rather than ‘creating’,  is in fact the oldest attested sense of the English word invention.  We still see something of the original sense in our word inventory.

Footnote:  Example of a (presumably) non-linguistically-based instance of Corona-Conspiracy pathology:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-01/man-charged-derailing-train-hospital-ship-mercy