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Full Idea
There is an application of that old chestnut of the cynic Antisthenes' followers (and other buffoons of that kind). Their claim was that a definition of what something is is impossible. You cannot define silver, though you can say it is like tin.
Gist of Idea
Some fools think you cannot define anything, but only say what it is like
Source
report of Antisthenes (Ath) (fragments/reports [c.405 BCE]) by Aristotle - Metaphysics 1043b
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.241
| 602 | Some fools think you cannot define anything, but only say what it is like [Antisthenes (I), by Aristotle] |
| 5619 | No a priori concept can be defined [Kant] |
| 22201 | The use of mathematical-style definitions in philosophy is fruitless and harmful [Husserl] |
| 14115 | Definition by analysis into constituents is useless, because it neglects the whole [Russell] |
| 14159 | In mathematics definitions are superfluous, as they name classes, and it all reduces to primitives [Russell] |
| 12619 | We have no successful definitions, because they all use indefinable words [Fodor] |
| 9331 | How do we determine which of the sentences containing a term comprise its definition? [Horwich] |
| 12585 | Most people can't even define a chair [Peacocke] |
| 14981 | Philosophical concepts are rarely defined, and are not understood by means of definitions [Sider] |
| 15015 | It seems possible for a correct definition to be factually incorrect, as in defining 'contact' [Sider] |
| 20391 | Feminists warn that ideologies use timeless objective definitions as a tool of repression [Davies,S] |