EPILEGOMENON

We are deeply indebted to the commentators for the hard work they have applied to responding to our paper. Neither their efforts nor our own in responding to their comments have been as enjoyable as one might wish. Our paper apparently persuaded some commentators that we hold positions that we thought we had explicitly denied, positions we denied for many of the same reasons as have the commentators. Though we expected disagreements, we were very surprised by some of the points actually taken to represent major controversies. We did not anticipate the variety of ways in which placing different emphases on our words yields unintended interpretations. We would have chosen different words in some cases, and probably a different organization for the text, had we foreseen these unintended interpretations. We regret that our paper is not the one we wish we had written, and regret that our tongue-in-cheek title may have given offense, for none was intended. To make amends, we will attempt in this afterword to express our intentions more clearly. Rather than attempt a comprehensive response to every point raised by the commentators, we restate our major points and principal arguments, saying exactly what we intended to say in our paper, but in a form we hope will be less conducive to misunderstanding.