definition

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is a substitution of a definition for the thing itself.

To define a thing is to substitute the definition for the thing itself. (Georges Braque)

is an act that provides a useful orientation or re-orientation of thought, inviting further unpacking to develop or control a novel line of inquiry.

Let us, therefore, reduce our paradigm to a definition, for, although it is notorious that definitions establish nothing in themselves, they do, if they are carefully enough constructed, provide a useful orientation, or reorientation of thought, such that an extended unpacking of them can be an effective way of developing and controlling a novel line of inquiry. They have the useful virtue of cxplicitness: they commit themselves in a way discursive prose does not (which in this field, especially, is always liable to substitute rhetoric for argument).' (geertz 1973: )

is an act that refers not to words but to the things themselves. It does not concern what the word 'tiger' means, but rather tells us what it is to be a tiger, what a tiger is said to be in respect to itself.

It is important to remember that for Aristotle, one defines things, not words. The definition of tiger does not tell us the meaning of the word 'tiger'... it tells us what it is to be a tiger, what a tiger is said to be in respect of itself. Thus, the definition of tiger states the essence the 'what it is to be' of a tiger, what is predicated of the tiger per se. (aristotle 'metaphysics' stanford encyclopedia)

is an act which is quite contrary to the act of perceiving. To suggest a table is -a horizontal flat surface supported by three or four legs, which can be used for eating off, reading a book on, and so forth requires one to withdraw one's interest from the particular way this table has of performing its function as a table. One withdraws from the style of the moulding, the shape of the feet, the dark finish and the defined grain of the wood.

Of course, when I give a dictionary definition of a table a horizontal flat surface supported by three or four legs, which can be used for eating off, reading a book on, and so forth I may feel that I have got, as it were, to the essence of the table... I withdraw my interest from all the accidental properties which may accompany that essence, such as the shape of the feet, the style of the moulding and so on. In this example, however, I am not perceiving but rather defining. By contrast, when I perceive a table, I do not withdraw my interest from the particular way it has of performing its function as a table: how is the top supported, for this is different with every table' What interests me is the unique movement from the feet to the table top with which it resist gravity... this is what makes each table different from the next. (Merleau-ponty 'world of perception' : 94)

is dangerous' since a clear definition of a concept may expose the 'contradictory' features of exiting institutions.

In a discussion of definition in PR 2, Hegel notes that Roman jurist warned that 'every definition is dangerous', since a clear definition of a concept may expose the 'CONTRADICTORY' features of existing institutions. A definition of man, e.g., would either (improbably) exclude slaves from the scope of the concept or else reveal that slaves, though men, were treated in ways that contravene the concept of man. This coheres with Hegel's view that a concept, and thus a definition, does not simply record the features common to everything that falls under it. Things, e.g. a slave, often fall short of the concept, e.g. that of a man, that primarily applies to them. (inwood 1992: 76)

is not something which should be stipulated outright. A concept is best developed out of an examination of other uses.

But it is characteristic of Hegel that he does not simply stipulate his own use of 'actual': he develops it out of an examination of other uses. Beginning with the idea that the actual contrasts with what is merely possible or consistently thinkable, he argues that the actual in this sense is what is contingent, that is, capable of not being, as well as of being, (inwood 1992 : 34).

is plagued by the fact that we must use words to make them.

Definitions would be good things if we did not use words to make them. (Jean-Jacques Rousseau)

is something we can do only when we know nothing whatever about that which we hope to define.

we can only define something when we know nothing whatever about it' (borges in 'the craft of verse' lecture one.

definition, n.Memes

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