{"id":7568,"date":"2014-11-20T11:44:58","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T11:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/11\/20\/egalitarians-by-definition-lack-wisdom-more-on-the-misuse-of-by-definition\/"},"modified":"2014-11-20T11:44:58","modified_gmt":"2014-11-20T11:44:58","slug":"egalitarians-by-definition-lack-wisdom-more-on-the-misuse-of-by-definition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/11\/20\/egalitarians-by-definition-lack-wisdom-more-on-the-misuse-of-by-definition\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Egalitarians By Definition Lack Wisdom&#8221;  More on the Misuse of &#8216;By Definition&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Regular readers of this blog know that I respect and admire Dennis Prager: he is a font of wisdom and&#0160;a source of insight.&#0160; But I just heard him say, &quot;Egalitarians by definition lack wisdom.&quot;&#0160; That is another&#0160;clear example of the illicit use of &#39;by definition,&#39; a mistake I pointed&#0160;out in <a href=\"http:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/maverick_philosopher\/2012\/12\/on-the-illicit-use-of-by-definition-2012-gun-version.html\" target=\"_self\">an earlier entry<\/a>.&#0160; Here are some examples of correct uses of &#39;by definition&#39;:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Bachelors are by definition male<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Triangles are by definition three-sided<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">In logic, sound arguments are by definition valid. (A sound argument is defined as one whose form is valid and all of whose premises are true.)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">In physics, work is defined as the product of force and distance moved: W= Fx.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">In set theory, a power set is defined to be the set of all subsets of a given set.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">By definition, no rifle is a shotgun.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Semi-automatic firearms are by definition capable of firing exactly one round per trigger pull until the magazine (and the chamber!) is empty.&#0160;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">In metaphysics, an&#0160;accident by definition is logically incapable of existing without a substance of which it is the accident.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">In astrophysics, a light-year is by definition a&#0160;measure of distance, not of time: it is the distance light travels in one year.&#0160;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">By definition, the luminiferous either is a medium for the propagation of electromagnetic signals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">By definition, what is true by definition is true.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Incorrect uses of &#39;by definition&#39;:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Joe Nocera: &quot;anyone who goes into a school with a semiautomatic and kills 20 children and six <\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">adults is, by definition, mentally ill.&quot;&#0160;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Donald Berwick: &quot;Excellent health care is by definition redistributional.&quot;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Illegal aliens are by definition Hispanic.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Bill Maher, et al.: &quot;Taxation is by definition redistributive.&quot;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Dennis Prager: &quot;Environmentalists are by definition extremists.&quot;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Dennis Prager: &quot;Egalitarians by definition lack wisdom.&quot;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Capitalists are by definition greedy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Socialists are by definition envious.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Alpha Centauri is by definition 4.3 light-years from earth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">The luminiferous ether exists by definition.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">By definition, the luminiferous ether cannot exist.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">I hope it is clear why the incorrect uses are incorrect.&#0160; As for the first Prager example, it is certainly true that some environmentalists are extremists.&#0160; But others are not.&#0160; So Prager&#39;s assertion is not even true.&#0160; Even if every environmentalist were an extremist, however, it would still not be true <em>by definition<\/em> that that is so.&#0160; <em>By definition<\/em>, what is true by definition is true; but what is true need not be true by definition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">As for the second Prager example, it may or may not be true that egalitarians lack wisdom depending on the definition of &#39;egalitarian.&#39;&#0160; But even if true, certainly not by definition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">So what game is Prager playing?&#0160; Is he using &#39;by definition&#39; as an intensifier?&#0160;&#0160; Is he purporting to make a factual claim to the effect that all environmentalists are extremists and then underlining (as it were) the claim by the use of &#39;by definition&#39;?&#0160; Or is he assigning by stipulation his own idiosyncratic meaning to &#39;environmentalist&#39;?&#0160; Is he serving notice that &#39;extremist&#39; is part of the very meaning of &#39;environmentalist&#39; in his idiolect?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Similar questions ought to be asked of other misusers of the phrase.&#0160; <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Language matters!<\/span><\/p>\n<fieldset class=\"zemanta-related\">\n<legend class=\"zemanta-related-title\">Related articles<\/legend>\n<div class=\"zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image\" style=\"margin: 0; padding: 0; overflow: hidden;\">\n<div class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li\" style=\"padding: 0; background: none; list-style: none; display: block; float: left; vertical-align: top; text-align: left; width: 84px; font-size: 11px; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/maverick_philosopher\/2014\/11\/how-to-tell-the-truth-without-being-truthful.html\" style=\"box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; padding: 2px; display: block; border-radius: 2px; text-decoration: none;\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i.zemanta.com\/309171254_80_80.jpg\" style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; border: 0; display: block; width: 80px; max-width: 100%;\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/maverick_philosopher\/2014\/11\/how-to-tell-the-truth-without-being-truthful.html\" style=\"display: block; overflow: hidden; text-decoration: none; line-height: 12pt; height: 80px; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px;\" target=\"_blank\">How to Tell the Truth without being Truthful<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Regular readers of this blog know that I respect and admire Dennis Prager: he is a font of wisdom and&#0160;a source of insight.&#0160; But I just heard him say, &quot;Egalitarians by definition lack wisdom.&quot;&#0160; That is another&#0160;clear example of the illicit use of &#39;by definition,&#39; a mistake I pointed&#0160;out in an earlier entry.&#0160; Here are &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/11\/20\/egalitarians-by-definition-lack-wisdom-more-on-the-misuse-of-by-definition\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8220;Egalitarians By Definition Lack Wisdom&#8221;  More on the Misuse of &#8216;By Definition&#8217;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}