From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Sat Mar 07 2009 - 11:18:49 MST
John K Clark wrote:
> On Sat, 07 Mar 2009 "Charles Hixson"
> <charleshixsn@earthlink.net> said:
>
>
>> Without a definition how will you know if
>> you have what you were after?
>>
>
> By seeing if the thing that I just made is like that thing over there
> that I am very interested in.
>
>
>> But if you don't have a decent workable
>> definition you might as well be working at random.
>>
>
> When you really get down to it, definitions are Bullshit. Every single
> definition in the dictionary is made of words, and every one of those
> words have their own definitions made of yet more words that are also in
> the dictionary, and on and an it goes. The only thing that saves us from
> this hideous infinite loop is examples, at some point we can say to hell
> with the dictionary and point to a ASCII sequence and then to something
> in the real world and say “this means that”.
>
> And by the way, I maintain that it is imposable to define “define”
> without sounding stupid.
>
> John K Clark
>
define, df. To set boundaries around. To limit a term to a certain area
of coverage. From the latin fine, a fence or boundary.
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