Upgraded to latest version of YACCS code
Quote from Samuel Johnson 1755 in the preface to his dictionary
“I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.”
Which I take to mean don’t forget that words are simply human inventions to symbolise what is perceived about the “real” world, whatever we perceive that real world “to be”. (Note the Bartleby source has the Columbia Encyclopaedia, the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, as well as an excellent collection of dictionaries of quotations. Added to glossary / dictionary / encyclopaedia links page.)
Still struggling to re-locate the ancient caveat I spotted about “beware meanings of words in dictionaries”. Been through every link in the DoPTN.
Not this one (from Krippendorf)
A dictionary like the discipline whose terminology it alms to clarify — is constantly in flux. It is aided by communal efforts and in turn aids communication within the community of users.
Got it ! (not so ancient).
From Marvin Minsky – The Society of Mind – 1985.
Thanks to the Alberta Uni Cog-Sci Dictionary.
“It often does more harm than good to force definitions on things we don’t
understand. Besides, only in logic and mathematics do definitions ever
capture concepts perfectly. The things we deal with in practical life are
usually too complicated to be represented by neat, compact expressions.
Especially when it comes to understanding minds, we still know so little
that we can’t be sure our ideas about psychology are even aimed in the right
directions. In any case, one must not mistake defining things for knowing
what they are.”
[NB not just beware, but more harm than good. A bit like my “reification destroys knowledge” mantra.]
Found loads more philosophy sources to be added to the links / glossary pages.
Hippias / Noesis, Guide to Philosophy on the Internet, and a Dictionary.
Philosophy in Cyberspace (many broken links)
Bjorn’s Guide to Philosophy – not recently updated.
Links page of the DoPTN – part of Noesis.
As well as all the secondary links from the Glossary page.
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