Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Being and Nothingness', 'Negation' and 'Analyticity Reconsidered'

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2 ideas

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 9. Limits of Reason
Inconsistency doesn't prevent us reasoning about some system [Mares]
     Full Idea: We are able to reason about inconsistent beliefs, stories, and theories in useful and important ways
     From: Edwin D. Mares (Negation [2014], 1)
2. Reason / D. Definition / 4. Real Definition
A sentence may simultaneously define a term, and also assert a fact [Boghossian]
     Full Idea: It doesn't follow from the fact that a given sentence is being used to implicitly define one of its ingredient terms, that it is not a factual statement. 'This stick is a meter long at t' may define an ingredient terms and express something factual.
     From: Paul Boghossian (Analyticity Reconsidered [1996], §III)
     A reaction: This looks like a rather good point, but it is tied in with a difficulty about definition, which is deciding which sentences are using a term, and which ones are defining it. If I say 'this stick in Paris is a meter long', I'm not defining it.