Re: Terminology question

From: <pamelafluente_at_libero.it>
Date: 7 Sep 2006 00:55:52 -0700
Message-ID: <1157615752.753171.187820@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>

You are right.That page does not focus precisely on what I meant.

I did not invent anything, it is quite a common place to say that definitions are tautological in the sense that every word that is defined is defined in terms only of other words which are defined elsewhere.

I you enter the following text into google search (do paste quotes also) you willl find several instances of what is generally meant:

"definitions are tautological" philosophy

If this statement can be considered "true" or "false" is another matter. Actually things can be more complex than just true /false, which are relatively naive concepts, as also the advances of science, and physics (quantum mechanics) in particular, are suggesting...

-P

Marshall ha scritto:

> pamelafluente_at_libero.it wrote:
> > Marshall ha scritto:
> > > pamelafluente_at_libero.it wrote:
> > > >
> > > > After all a definition is always tautological because based on other
> > > > definitions.
> > >
> > > Definitions are not tautological. Tautologies are true; definitions
> > > are neither true nor false.
> > >
> > Hi dear. Clearly, I used "rhetoric", not "logic" definition, which is
> > the most widely understood usage of this word...
> >
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautology_%28rhetoric%29

> Well, I was not familiar with that use of the word.
> However, having read that page, it appears that
> definitions are not tautological under that definition
> either.
>
>
> Marshall
Received on Thu Sep 07 2006 - 02:55:52 CDT