purpleposeidon comments on Arguing "By Definition" - Less Wrong

44 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 20 February 2008 11:37PM

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Comment author: purpleposeidon 23 September 2010 01:38:05AM *  2 points [-]

When you say that something is so by definition, what you (most likely) actually mean is that something is so by default. If a human is defined as "a featherless biped"*, you can't say that Hermione, who has just had an unfortunate accident with Hedwig and a polyjuice potion, is no longer human because she's grown feathers. "A feathered biped" is only by default not human!

*I don't think you'll ever find a definition like that in a dictionary. "homo: any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage": If you're mentally disabled, stuttering, and hunch-backed, it doesn't mean that you aren't, by definition, human. You've got bad genes (or bad nurturing), but they're still Hominidae genes.