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The "Undefined Term" Game
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Bill Walker Send message Joined: 4 Sep 99 Posts: 3868 Credit: 2,697,267 RAC: 0 |
To improve the description I would add We all know Chris is skinny, but surely he weighs more than 20 kilos! |
celttooth Send message Joined: 21 Nov 99 Posts: 26503 Credit: 28,583,098 RAC: 0 |
theropod dinosaurs http://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=7jH-5c0mIbr9SM&tbnid=5_rWbbdxILunXM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.savalli.us%2FBIO370%2FDiversity%2F08.BirdOrigins.html&ei=G0pYUs3RCbHtiQK19IG4BQ&bvm=bv.53899372,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNFPUP-rgbZCF9iuu251oeEy7UPSAA&ust=1381604243627428 There we go, that should take care of all of it.... |
Matt Giwer Send message Joined: 21 May 00 Posts: 841 Credit: 990,879 RAC: 0 |
As we have seen implying that playing a game with definitions is just a rhetorical attack. It is actually nearly impossible unless the thing to be defined is in fact ambiguous or a source of conflicting definitions by different parties. As demonstrated in the topic which occasioned the creation of this one on antisemitism arriving at a common definition is really quite simple. As one can see from some of the posts despite the existence of an acceptable definition there are people who stubbornly refuse to even consider using the definition. For them it is as though a definition did not exist. Pretending calling for a definition is disingenuous is no more than an attack om the person when the attacker knows he does not have a chance if the accepted definition is used. It is not a new tactic. Unvarnished Haaretz Jerusalem Post The origin of the Yahweh Cult |
Sarge Send message Joined: 25 Aug 99 Posts: 12273 Credit: 8,569,109 RAC: 79 |
You mistakenly believe this is all about you and your thread. You are apparently unaware of a long line of discussions on this forum. Hence, you try to attack, but cover it up with big words in a semi-lengthy post. Face it. Euclid was right. A small set of undefined terms are necessary, for if this "game" were carried out properly, we would eventually find ourselves going in a circle. Similarly, a small set of "postulates" (a.k.a "axioms" or "unproven statements") are also needed. You mistakenly brought up "Euclid's Fifth Postulate" (a.k.a. "The Parallel Postulate"), either thinking that postulates were undefined terms, or at least hoping to point out a flaw in Euclid's approach. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ParallelPostulate.html Given any straight line and a point not on it, there "exists one and only one straight line which passes" through that point and never intersects the first line, no matter how far they are extended. This statement is equivalent to the fifth of Euclid's postulates, which Euclid himself avoided using until proposition 29 in the Elements. For centuries, many mathematicians believed that this statement was not a true postulate, but rather a theorem which could be derived from the first four of Euclid's postulates. (That part of geometry which could be derived using only postulates 1-4 came to be known as absolute geometry.) Face it. It's not all about you. It's not all about your topic(s). Not this thread. Not it's topic. Face it. You have made a mistake. |
Bill Walker Send message Joined: 4 Sep 99 Posts: 3868 Credit: 2,697,267 RAC: 0 |
+1 |
Sarge Send message Joined: 25 Aug 99 Posts: 12273 Credit: 8,569,109 RAC: 79 |
You (Chris) have used the term "extinct" when it was already used and disallowed from further use. Point proven? Or did Chris not understand the rules? OK. |
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