CHAPTER 1: WORDS AND THE WORLD

1. PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS
WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

It IS NOT:
o Statements of ordinary perception
o Questions that the sciences can answer
anything empirical or involving experimentation
o Questions about events in the past
statements involving historical facts
o Questions in different branches of mathematics

It IS:
o The study of Reality
tackles questions which are not empirical or mathematical
o Study of Justification
concerned with whether or not something can be verified
o Analysis of various concepts central to our thought
attempts to define words used in everyday life

Branches of Philosophy
o logic
concerned with correct reasoning
o epistemology
justifies claims to knowledge
o metaphysis
explains reality other than historical, empirical or mathematical claims
o values
ethics and aesthetics

VERBAL ISSUES

Usual cause of disagreements

Verbal disagreements
o disputes regarding the definition of terms used rather than the facts being
presented
ex. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it fall, is there a sound
- *the answer depends on how sound is defined
- a. Yes, if sound refers to sound waves as alternating condensations and
rarefactions or air particles that occur regardless of the presence of an
observer
- b. No, if sound refers to the sound sensation, which requires someone to
have it

2. WORDS AND THINGS

The distinctive way in which human beings communicate is by means of words.

The number of words in a language is finite. But we want to be able to use words
to talk about anything we wish, so we group the things and qualities into classes or
kinds.
When a word stands for one word one thing only, these words are called proper
names.

HERACLEITUS AND GENERAL WORDS

Heracleitus said that everything is constantly changing.

o ..you cant step on the same river twice, because the drops of water that
are in the river when you cross it today are not the same drops that were
there when you crossed yesterday
Heracleitus reminds us that there is danger in this same-word-same-thing fallacy or
collectivist fallacy.
General words used to refer to things that are (probably) not exactly alike but
they have some characteristics in common

CLASSIFICATION
How we classify objects depends on
o Characteristics
o Interests
WORDS AS TOOLS
Nouns
stands for
kinds of
things

Adjective
s
stand for
kinds of
qualities

Adverbs
describe
ways of
behaving
or doing

Prepositio
ns
refer to
certain
relations
that
things
have to
one
another

Verbs
stand for
different
kinds of
action or
initiation
of change

Conjuncti
ons
indicate
how
various
clauses in
a
sentence
are
related to
one
another

Prepositio
ns
used to
express a
persons
attitude
towards
somethin
g

A word is only a sign. Words are conventional signs.

o In conventional signs people decide on which As will be used to stand for
which Bs
Every word in a language has some job to do. (No two of them have exactly the
same job)
To know the meaning of the word is to know what kind of job it does, what its
function is in the language.
When do we know the meaning of a word or phrase?
o When we know the rule for its use (definition of the word)

3. DEFINITION"

Tells us what characteristics something has to have in order for the word to apply
to it
Defining Feature
qualifications of X for it to be called X
*ex. A triangle cannot be a triangle if it is bounded by more or less than 3 lines
Accompanying Feature
features that most Xs have, but not all
ex. Being white is an accompanying feature of most swans, but not all since black
swan have also been discovered
Universally Accompanying Feature
features that all Xs have, but do not necessarily define X
ex. If no black swans were discovered, being white would be a universally
accompanying feature of swans, but it is still not defining

DEFINITION AND EXISTENCE

some things may have clear definitions, but still not exist
ex. Centaurs - we have a clear image of centaurs and their defining characteristics,
but this does not mean that they exist

SCOPE OF DEFINITION

definitions can be too broad

o ex. Telephone = instrument used for communication
o the definition is too broad since there are several other instruments used for
communication aside from telephones

TRUTH AND DEFINITION

what we mean by words

o stipulative definition - specifies what you mean by X
o ex. By X, I mean Y
o reportive definition - definition that comes from experience

4. VAGUENESS

Ambiguity - use of a word to mean more than one kind of thing

Vagueness - other feature that is even more prevalent and less likely to be recognized
o It plays havoc with our neat classification of defining versus non defining characteristics.
o The US Constitution guarantees all of us due process of law, but what exactly is due process?
o The constitution prohibits what it calls cruel and unusual punishment but doesnt say what it is.
o An officer is supposed to arrest a man for vagrancy but the man said he is not and he just had an
appointment with a person but that person never showed up.
The term vagrancy is vague fuzzy at the edges; its range of application is not clear. The officer is
supposed to arrest vagrants and doesnt quite know what to do in this case. So the law is changed: a
vagrant is now defined as anyone who remains in the same city block for at least three hours and has less
than five dollars. Now the definition of vagrant is more precise, and officer knows what to do. However,
the definition still doesnt cover what we want it to cover. Many people with less than five dollars on
their person may for various reasons walk a city block for three hours and yet, we believe, not qualify as
vagrants. The new law thus seems arbitrary.
o Sometimes the information we can give is not very precise: Yes I now he was running fast, but I
dont know how fast.
o In daily life we need vague words, but for special purposes, such as science, they are too vague to
be useful.
o To be convicted, a defendant must be guilty beyond reasonable doubt. But the phrase
reasonable doubt is vague; two jurors watching the same trial might disagree as to whether there
is reasonable doubt.
Sometimes a word is vague not because there is no single cutoff point, but because there are multiple
criteria for its application.
o A term may be associated with characteristics A, B, C, D, and E. But if a thing has A, B, and C,
the term may apply without D or E. Or it can have B, C, D and E but not A and still apply. As long
as it has some features, the term is applicable. But there may be no one feature that all
members of the class have in common; the term may be applicable no matter which feature is
absent as long as all or most of the others are there.
When we use a word we should know exactly when it applies to something and when it does not but
language is not built that way.
We should notice that the words by which we define a term are themselves vague (e.g. adolescence).
A more precise definition would not give us info about how the word is actually used.
Countless disputes arise because one or more terms are vague in a way crucial to the argument (e.g.
taxes).

5. CONNOTATION

Connotations. Some have called this

o Secondary meaning because it presupposes the primary sense
o Metaphorical meaning because there is an implicit comparison between two
unlike things.
Ex. A man who was called a wolf

Either way, one hasnt explained how the word is actually used unless one has
explained its secondary meaning

EMOTIVE MEANING
When the word tends to regularly or universally to evoke a certain kind of
feeling/attitude, it is said to have emotive meaning.
The emotive meaning of a word consists of the aura of a favorable or unfavorable
feeling that hovers about a word.
The emotive effect that certain words have upon hearers is immense. But should it
be called meaning?
o The answer depends on whether the emotive effect of the word is the main
determinant for its use.

6. OSTENSIVE DEFINITION

A dictionary tells you what a word is used to mean by using other words. A baby who knows no words at
all cant learn this way. Babies and children learn their first words ostensively by being shown
examples of how they apply to the world.
o However, there are limitations to ostensive definitions. Defining a word ostensively doesnt tell
the hearer its limits of application. Ostensive definition is limited to what you can show (running,
walking, time, infinity, property, feelings).
o Ostensive definition is a fairly rapid method of learning the meanings of new words
When we give verbal definition, we place the thing in a wider class under which it falls, then we
distinguish this thing or class of things from other members of the same class. However, there are reasons
why sometimes we cant do this:
o Sometimes the class is already so wide that there are no wider classification under which it falls
(e.g. existence, time, space, being)
o Consider the least abstract words (e.g. red, shrill, pungent, bitter, anger, pain), someone may
be able to state the physiological conditions under which people experience all these but it is not
the same as telling us what these words themselves stand for.

IMPRESSIONS AND IDEAS

All knowledge is derived from what called impressions, wrote David Hume (1711-1776)
Some of our ideas come from the external senses. Other ideas have an internal source. We would have
no idea what these emotions are if we had not experienced them. However, we have ideas of many kinds
of thing of which we have no impressions (e.g. golden mountain)
o Complex idea- what we get when we put two ideas together. (Golden mountains, we have seen
both mountain and color gold, so we can have an idea what a golden mountain looks like)
o Simple ideas are the ones we could not have had if we had not had impressions of them
o We can have concepts for which no images at all are available
Empiricism one version of a traditional epistemological theory that says all concepts are in some way
derived from experience.
Rationalism says that not all concepts need be thus derived. Some concepts may be built into our
brains so that we need to have no examples of them in our sense-experiences at all

7. MEANINGLESSNESS

All words have meanings although, many words dont stand for any things,
qualities, or relations. Examples of such include Weeee! and Ouch!
Without meaning, a word merely became an entanglement of strange noises.

GRAMATICAL INCOMPLETENESS
Sometimes a sentence is grammatically incomplete: it fails to contain an
element required to complete its meaning.
o Ex. Above
The lamp is above, and we say Above what? and he/she replies
Not above anything, just above. Which wouldnt make sense since the
lamp should be above something, thus rendering the sentence meaningless.
This example would also apply to comparative terms such as larger or
smaller.
CATEGORY MISTAKES (Type Crossings)
Sentences dont make sense at all, however, they can still be understood.
o Ex.
Quadratic Equations go to horse races
Saturday is in bed
He killed the number 5 yesterday
METAPHOR
We often use words in metaphorical senses, which would cause confusion about
the existence of meaning within the sentence. Some effort is needed to
understand that there is in fact meaning within the sentence. Poets often use
this.
We can always stipulate some meaning of our own that is not embedded in the
text, but that hardly makes it a meaningful expression in a public language.
o Ex. Life is but a walking shadow
This wouldnt be so far off to the ordinary expression of Shes a
shadow of her former self. Some effort is needed to dissect the sentence
and to make sense out of it.