Ben_Jones comments on Arguing "By Definition" - Less Wrong

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

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Comment author: Ben_Jones 21 February 2008 03:49:20PM 0 points [-]

Caledonian,

The point is that mortality has been observed to always apply to entities that possess the necessary defining qualities of humanity.

Read this through. Necessary defining qualities? Your whole post implicitly assumes the existence of these magical qualities, which presumably reside somewhere just outside reality. Decide on these, then write it as 'mortality has always been observed to apply to entities that possess x, y and z'.

Frank - agreed; I think we're all on the same page here. The point is about human brains, not ideal minds. The problem with placing things in mental boxes (even thorough ones) is that we start thinking about the world in terms of boxes, not things; simply because of how our mental hardware is wired up. How about "Good definitions are still, by definition, limiting and compressed. Bad, careless definitions are really, really bad." Has a nice ring I think.