Here's a question
 

Is someone missing if they're not missed?




I don't mean technically either nor do i want you to go into semantic meanings.

yes a person can be missing but not missed. just because you do not miss a person doesnt mean that you dont notice when they are not around. it may be that they are not annoying you every 5 seconds or talking shit 24/7, leaving you with piece and quite, but u do notice when they are 'missing'.

I think we need an example. Suppose I lost my car keys. But I was not aware of their loss for a whole day. The next morning I noticed their absence and declared them missing. Were they missing for the whole day despite the fact that I was not aware of their absence?

Obviously they were. For the whole time they were not in my possession. Just because I was not aware of this fact does not make it any less real.

missing is a phenomenon which relies on humans to give proper places to items or people. a person may decide that they are missing if they are disoriented on a mountain. a set of keys may not.

Not being in a persons possession doesn't make anything missing-the whole idea turns on there being places an object *should* be...and that requires human decisions. say if you left the keys on your counter...what's it to the keys? why would they prefer to be in your pocket? i think mantus has a point...but i've been waiting to try out my "everything does not have a place" rant. hehe...

oh...and this is a total semantic fight.

Do you know the person who keeps your power running? What if they forgot to"push a button" and you lost heat in winter. You dont know he forgot, yet you are freezing because they are missing in action.

I disagree completely, sorry :).

Something can not be missing if it is not sought.

As long as your keys are sitting there without you knowing, then they are simply there - nothing more. Although, High_way is correct. The split second you think about your keys, they becoming "missing" (in your mind atleast), as you are now seeking them. But up until that point, they are not missing.

However, if I was to define the term Missing, I would label it as a personal belief rather than a state of being. Since Missing is not an active state, it is just an idea that we create to describe something. Just because one person believes the keys are missing does not mean the keys are truely missing. After all, perhaps your wife has already gone to the car and found the keys =P.

mu

He can only be missing if you know he's missing. If you don't know or are not aware of him the person is not missing. Missing is a subjective thing in my book.

Say a bus driver you don't know called in sick, so his bus isn't running. So instead of a gap of 10 minutes between buses on the line, there's a gap of 20 minutes between two buses, because one bus isn't being driven. You wait longer than usual at the bus stop. When the next driver pulls up, you angrily ask for an explanation, and he explains about the missing driver. Now you know about him, and _Now_ he's missing.