I see this morning that an article I wrote three years ago, on what
words are, has re-entered the
Top of the Pops of the philosophy weekly Pi:
The Bridging Inference. It stands at no. 2. Words are not what we were
taught at school. It was said (and
is said) that a definition is the
most economical statement of a word's descriptive meaning. I turn that
around -- and motivate it carefully. A definition is the most
expansive
statement of a word's descriptive meaning. That is how we actually use words. It has all kinds
of consequences. It explains a range of things we haven't really explained about language -- and it says we ought
in general to be thinking holistically, not reductionistically.
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