PHI 1101 Chapter Notes - Chapter units 2 and 3: Modus Ponens, Stipulative Definition, Vagueness

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 1101
• Professor: Laura Byrne

Document Summary

Midterm #2 study notes: units 2 and 3. The sense of a word is what we understand when we understand its meaning. It is what is specified by a dictionary definition. The class of things to which the word refers- the things to which the concept points. Reports a word in its standard usage: standard usage is how the word is, in fact, used by people who make regular use of it; how the word is used by competent speakers of the language. Standard usage however, can be fluid and changing. Sometimes we need to fix (stipulate) a particular meaning of a word by going beyond standard usage. We might stipulate the meaning of a word if standard usage is: not precise enough, as yet, has no term for a phenomenon. We can invent new words and fix their meaning by stipulation. We can also stipulate new meanings for old words. Intended to describe the essential nature of something.