John,
thank you.
Alex
2010/9/18 John F. Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Ferenc and Alex,
The URL pointed to the entire philosophy department at SFU.
AS> is it possible to get a source of your citations?
See http://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/swartz/definitions.htm
NS> When we use the name of a term in accordance with the
> just-reported convention we are said to be mentioning the term.
FK> My comment: (The distinction between use and mention is not
> clear to me. To mention means to use it in speech or in writing)
Norman Swartz's article has examples to clarify that distinction:
1. Science begins with curiosity.
2. Science begins with the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet.
3. 'Science' begins with the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet.
Sentence #1 uses the word 'science' to make a statement about the
field of study and research, which many people would agree with.
Sentence #2, as Swartz said, is literally nonsense, because it seems
to say that the field of science begins with a letter of the alphabet.
Sentence #3, with the extra quotes, clarifies the point by showing
that the word 'science' is being *mentioned* as a word, but it is
not being *used* to refer to the field.
If you need more examples, see the Wikipedia:
1. Cheese is derived from milk.
2. Cheese is derived from a word in Old English.
Guess which sentence is using the word 'cheese' and which is
only mentioning it. For further discussion, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use%E2%80%93mention_distinction
AS> But if you just need definition of definition why not use
> definition 2.a from
> http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/definition
That's a good question, which Swartz answers in Section 5.2,
which talks about 'lexical definitions', as found in a
typical dictionary:
http://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/swartz/definitions.htm#part5.2
The entire article covers important issues about methods of
definition that have been discussed on Ontolog Forum. Swartz
also has other relevant articles and books. See
http://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/swartz/contents.htm
And by the way, Norman Swartz has been a professor emeritus
since 1998. Universities don't keep such things on their
web sites forever. You might download them now.
John
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