1. Essential properties - These are properties which are absolutely necessary to the word. A tree is a plant.
2. Accidental properties - Properties that the definition can contain, but are not essential to its identity. "A tree can have branches". — Philosophim
Are there trees without branches? — Benj96
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TreeIn botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. In wider definitions, the taller palms, tree ferns, bananas, and bamboos are also trees.
Right, so the opposite of a word would be what constrains that word. So,For me, definition means to place separations/ delineations, limitations or parameters around a concept or thing which divides it into A “the defined” - the content within the parameters, and B “all other things” ie. “it” and “not it”. Definitions separate things by character or relationship to one another. By “contrast” essentially. — Benj96
However this immediately leads to some issues especially at the extremes.
If I take the word “everything” how do I define it? You cannot “divide” the concept of “everything” as it is parameterless. Any parameter to u try to place around the set/ content is also included in the set/content.
Similarly you cannot define nothing as it’s contentless. You can’t place a parameter around an empty set. — Benj96
This would mean that if we define “shoe” as the Oxford English Dictionary does as “one pair of objects usually made of leather or plastic that you wear on your feet” , a shoe can never be a). something you don’t wear on your feet, b). A non physical object or c) something that doesn’t come in pairs. Do you thing that’s a good definition of a shoe?
Because that definition permits someone to be wearing a pair of plastic watering cans they have never removed from their feet, they’ve always been there, and if they were to lose one they will have violated some law about not being in pairs and the watering-can would reappear magically.
Obviously this is an absurd and overly literal interpretation of “shoe” but it highlights the degree of assumptions we require in order to appreciate a definition correctly. Is a good definition then really one where no assumptions have to made?
It seems that the more specific you make a definition, the more possibilities you omit, that is to say the more inaccurate the definition it gets as most things can be made in an endless myriad of styles, shapes, forms, and even functions and from multiple materials in any number of combinations.
What then do all the millions of shoes in the world have in common? Some are graphics on paper or in media, some are described concepts from peoples minds and some are on your feet but all of them can be defined easily by anyone as a “shoe.”
The most accurate definition of a shoe could be said to be “something”. It’s likely that this definition will indeed contain the set of all possible shoes. However no that the definition is accurate it is completely non-specific.
So it appears that specificity and accuracy in language are inversely related. Definitions can be specific but inaccurate or non-specific and accurate.
Thoughts? — Benj96
3. Context - A societal or intentional situation that changes the essential and accidental properties of the definition. "That plaster statue is a tree." (It is not essential that a tree be a plant, as we are within the context of artistic representations, and thus plaster). — Philosophim
Eucalypts simply do not choose to fall into neat categories for the benefit of botanists and foresters.
The various trees do not have essential characteristics that mark them as members of this species or of that. — Banno
...that must mean something. — Harry Hindu
I received an an alert that your link was blocked due to a Trojan virus — Harry Hindu
No, that's the piper. He wants his money — Agent Smith
Does he pipe for money?
"pijpen: whistle; blow; hum; give a blow-job; suckpijp: tobacco-pipe; pipe; piping; pipage" — Hillary
What does it mean to be useful if not that it carries some element of truth (as in what is the case)? All of your statements are about what is the case. Either we construct useful categories or we don't. You can use scribbles, "we", to refer to we. Are we just more scribbles, or are you using scribbles to refer to things that are not scribbles, like a group of humans?It means we construct useful categories, nothing more. — Banno
What does it mean to be useful if not that it carries some element of truth — Harry Hindu
No. Some of them make something the case.All of your statements are about what is the case. — Harry Hindu
That's been explained to you repeatedly: performative utterances. — Banno
Why so snarky? You've repeated yourself many times to many others on this forum, and I'm sure they have repeated themselves to you, and then you ignore what they said and end up repeating yourself without acknowledging what others have said.No. Some of them make something the case.
But that is apparently beyond your comprehension. So be it. — Banno
And yet we use words without being able to provide suitable definitions.
Consider that a child does not learn to use a word by being told its definition. They learn by imitation, trying out new expressions, getting it wrong and getting it right.
The definition comes only after the word had been used. — Banno
What's the goddamned difference between essence and definition? — Agent Smith
Could it be that this is a case of Rumsfeldian unknown knowns? — Agent Smith
Gracias Banno for clarifying what essence means. — Agent Smith
I'll try again. The essence is in the thing. The definition is in the words. — Banno
A definition sets the essence of some thing in words. — Banno
However this immediately leads to some issues especially at the extremes.
If I take the word “everything” how do I define it? You cannot “divide” the concept of “everything” as it is parameterless. Any parameter to u try to place around the set/ content is also included in the set/content. — Benj96
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