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Full Idea
If Bentham found some term convenient but ontologically embarrassing, contextual definition enabled him in some cases to continue to enjoy the services of the term while disclaiming its denotation.
Gist of Idea
Bentham's contextual definitions preserved terms after their denotation became doubtful
Source
Willard Quine (Five Milestones of Empiricism [1975], p.68)
Book Ref
Quine,Willard: 'Theories and Things' [Harvard 1981], p.68
A Reaction
In Quine's terms this would be to withdraw the term from the periphery of the theory, where it has to meet the world, and make it part of the inner connections of the theory. He suggests that Bentham invented this technique.
Related Idea
Idea 19048 Contextual definition shifted the emphasis from words to whole sentences [Quine]
| 9845 | We can't define a word by defining an expression containing it, as the remaining parts are a problem [Frege] |
| 9844 | Originally Frege liked contextual definitions, but later preferred them fully explicit [Frege, by Dummett] |
| 9822 | Nothing should be defined in terms of that to which it is conceptually prior [Frege, by Dummett] |
| 21560 | Any linguistic expression may lack meaning when taken out of context [Russell] |
| 19047 | Bentham's contextual definitions preserved terms after their denotation became doubtful [Quine] |
| 19048 | Contextual definition shifted the emphasis from words to whole sentences [Quine] |
| 8995 | Definition by words is determinate but relative; fixing contexts could make it absolute [Quine] |
| 9847 | A contextual definition permits the elimination of the expression by a substitution [Dummett] |
| 10476 | The idea that groups of concepts could be 'implicitly defined' was abandoned [Hodges,W] |
| 10142 | The attempt to define numbers by contextual definition has been revived [Wright,C, by Fine,K] |
| 9961 | 'Contextual definitions' replace whole statements, not just expressions [Mautner] |
| 10204 | An 'implicit definition' gives a direct description of the relations of an entity [Shapiro] |
| 18776 | Contextual definitions eliminate descriptions from contexts [Linsky,B] |
| 9955 | Contextual definitions replace a complete sentence containing the expression [George/Velleman] |