I am a fan of the dictionary

Main idea: Taking the time to define concepts increases clarity of thinking and writing by recognizing the limits of meeting and revealing conceptual connections.

I love the dictionary and have since childhood. In fact, at one time I set out to read it. I didn't get very far: insufficient plot. Still, I get the dictionary.com word of the day. I look up words all the time, sometimes pondering the definitions in my zibaldone. I'm a fan.

But there's more to it than that. Defining terms clarifies thinking, distinguishing this from that, and narrows ideas to a range of concepts. Definitions set bounds around ideas, highlighting this particular concept and exposing differences from and connections with other ideas.

I think that's why I'll end up liking Aristotle. In the lexicon section of Metaphysics, he is clarifying concepts by defining terms. It's just lovely.

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(C) Laura Springer

Musings of a peripatetic wannabe-sage by Laura Springer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License..