Mr. A is serving his second serve to Mr. B on the first point of a tie-breaker. The ball lands wide, and Mr. C calls, “Out. Double fault.” Seeing his serve land out and hearing, “Double fault,” Mr. A frowns, says something demeaning about himself, and calls the serve “terrible.” Seeing the same stroke, Mr. B. judges it as “good” and smiles. The umpire neither frowns nor smiles; he simply calls the ball as he sees it. What is important to see here is that neither the “goodness” nor “badness” ascribed to the event by the players is an attribute of the shot itself. Rather, they are evaluations
...more