21
votes
Is this a fallacy: "A woman is an adult who identifies as female in gender"?
A woman is an adult that identifies as female in gender.
A fallacy is an argument that is specious but persuasive. You have presented no substantial argument which often takes the form of first ...
- 31.5k
18
votes
Accepted
What do all branches of Mathematics have in common to be considered "Mathematics", or parts of the same field?
Instead of asking what all branches of mathematics have in common, I'd look at that as: how can I distinguish a mathematical text (proof, argument, construction) from a non-mathematical one. I believe ...
- 2,610
17
votes
Is this a fallacy: "A woman is an adult who identifies as female in gender"?
"A woman is anyone who identifies as a woman" is a definition, not an argument (it defines what "woman" means). So it cannot be fallacious. But it's circular*, which means it's not ...
- 11.7k
15
votes
What do all branches of Mathematics have in common to be considered "Mathematics", or parts of the same field?
Mathematical formalism gives an easy definition of the field. For example, Haskell Curry defined mathematics as the "science of formal systems". From this perspective, it's easy to test if a ...
14
votes
Accepted
Does Aristotle ever explicitly refer to man as a "rational animal"?
Kind of.
The obvious
As animal sociale is the Latin, especially Scholastic translation of zoon politikon, just as animal rationale is the translation of ζῷον λόγον ἔχον, zōon logon ekhon, he ...
- 14.4k
14
votes
Why did we define vacuous statements as true rather than false?
We do NOT define vacuous statements as true.
A vacuously true statement is vacuously true.
A "vacuously false" statement is vacuously false; although nobody ever gives this type of statement any ...
- 2,995
14
votes
Is this a fallacy: "A woman is an adult who identifies as female in gender"?
It isn't an argument, so cannot be a fallacy.
It is merely a definition.
A definition can be useful or not. It can be a prescriptive definition or a descriptive definition. Prescriptive definitions ...
- 413
12
votes
Accepted
Are humans and other animals machines?
I like this question. It's thorny.
Merriam-Webster defines
machine so: a mechanically, electrically, or electronically operated device for performing a task.
That is, there is an operator (the entity ...
- 1,535
11
votes
Is the dichotomy between natural and unnatural defensible?
Natural is one of those words that fit the description of what John Austin called trouser-words in his book Sense and Sensibilia. Sometimes you can only understand a word by reference to what it is ...
- 29k
10
votes
Is this a fallacy: "A woman is an adult who identifies as female in gender"?
The following definition is not circular:
A woman is somebody who says they are a woman.
This definition proposes a test, "do they say they are a woman?", to determine if somebody is a ...
- 1,020
9
votes
How do we know we've defined a thing properly when all definitions have exceptions?
Do not expect to find a perfect definition.
A definition is an expression of the meaning of something (the problem of the thing, what is a thing, is another), and meanings are intended normally for ...
- 7,890
8
votes
What is a physical quantity in science?
Physical quantity is something that one measures. In other words it is defined by the measurement procedure/protocol. Then one can form an abstract view of such a quantity, as something that can be ...
- 1,849
8
votes
What is the name of the philosophy that believes one should do whatever they want?
Here is a blog post proposing a concept of "hedonic nihilism", which comes very close to what is described in the question.
Hedonic Nihilism is an amalgamation of two philosophical ideas.
...
- 1,470
8
votes
Accepted
Reference request for the definition of logic
The word 'logic' is used in different senses depending on context, and arguably it has shifted in meaning over time. Historically, logic is concerned with rational belief and inference. It is the ...
- 29k
7
votes
Question Regarding Holes
In mathematics a hole in a closed surface is an obstruction to contract a loop to a single point on the surface without removing the loop from the surface. The number of independent non-contractible ...
- 37k
7
votes
What do all branches of Mathematics have in common to be considered "Mathematics", or parts of the same field?
"Mathematics" is a topic which does not have well defined edges. It is generally accepted that it operates on rather abstract concepts, such as using the number 5 rather than physical ...
- 18.4k
6
votes
A non-circular definition of "not"
According to the research of the Natural semantic metalanguage project, the problem of circular definitions is solved through the identification of semantic primes, the basic blocks of meaning which ...
- 1,820
6
votes
Accepted
What does "true" mean in "justified true belief"?
This is slightly tricky as not everyone uttering that may have the same conception of truth, but generally speaking I think the definition only makes sense for some external/correspondence notion of ...
6
votes
How do we answer the question of "what is it"?
1.) Before answering a ‚What is?‘-question it may help to clarify:
Which type of statement would I accept as a satisfying answer?
We are not familiar with objects like electrons, protons, positrons, ...
- 37k
6
votes
Accepted
Neo-liberalism, language and freedom?
This is a very well thought-out question. You invoke Noam Chomsky's contributions to the philosophy of mind with his proposals regarding innate properties which he puts forward in his ideas regarding ...
- 31.5k
6
votes
How do we know we've defined a thing properly when all definitions have exceptions?
Several options to define a word.
1. Explicitly define a word in any arbitrary way you want
and then use it according to your definition. This method often works for new terms that you invented, such ...
- 16.5k
6
votes
Question Regarding Holes
No, when you eat a donut you eat the donut. The hole is no different to the rest of the space outside the volume occupied by the body of the donut, none of which do you eat. A hole is a term that ...
- 24.8k
6
votes
Can a definition be true/false?
The Stanford Encyclopedia lists several different kinds of definition, so it worth distinguishing some of them.
A dictionary definition aims to give the meaning of a word to speakers of the language. ...
- 29k
6
votes
What do all branches of Mathematics have in common to be considered "Mathematics", or parts of the same field?
i would say that mathematics is basically the study of patterns within the constraints of certain formal systems of logic. Empirical data can provide or suggest the existence of particular patterns, ...
- 683
5
votes
Is it possible to define "the supernatural"?
The question asked and the one described are different. You asked if it is possible to define "the supernatural." The answer to that question is, yes. It has been done in many dictionaries, and the ...
- 376
5
votes
Does this definition of a soul make sense?
I've played with such compatablistic definitions of "soul" before. The biggest challenge you face is people just nodding their head and saying, "yeah, sure."
"Soul" is just a word. It's four ...
- 18.4k
5
votes
Difference between "neither true nor false" and "either true or false."
"Neither true nor false”
means that the statement has no definite truth valued : it lives in a sort of limbo, a truth value-gap between true and false.
“Either true or false”
means that the ...
- 38.2k
5
votes
Accepted
A non-circular definition of "not"
There's a "purely algebraic" approach, albeit one of dubious success: namely, we take the view that negation is characterized by explosion (avoiding non-contradiction since the latter is ...
- 3,368
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible