Definitions are clouds in concept-space
Since Words are pointers to concept-space, we can see that definitions are areas of that Concept-space.
The key note here is that we call those definitions “clouds” so because we do not believe definitions have strict boundaries. More often, definitions have a lot of examples from the real world that fit easily within them, and some examples from the real world that might feel on the border, uncertain of whether it fits or not.
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This is also another form of the idea that Definitions are clouds in concept-space, as a definition allows us to go up a layer of abstraction, and then create new definitions using other definitions. Layers of abstraction exist as layers of Concept-space.
This is a disagreement between Concept-spaces, about definitions of words (since Definitions are clouds in concept-space and Words are pointers to concept-space). This type of argument likely does not have any possible external validation, and runs the risk of going on forever.
“Now there is an important sense in which we can legitimately move from evident characteristics to not-so-evident ones. You can, legitimately, see that Socrates is human-shaped, and predict his vulnerability to hemlock. But this probabilistic inference does not rely on dictionary definitions or common usage; it relies on the universe containing empirical clusters of similar things.” (Eliezer Yudkowsky, Rationality)
This is a disagreement between Concept-spaces, about definitions of words (since Definitions are clouds in concept-space and Words are pointers to concept-space). This type of argument likely does not have any possible external validation, and runs the risk of going on forever.
“Now there is an important sense in which we can legitimately move from evident characteristics to not-so-evident ones. You can, legitimately, see that Socrates is human-shaped, and predict his vulnerability to hemlock. But this probabilistic inference does not rely on dictionary definitions or common usage; it relies on the universe containing empirical clusters of similar things.” (Eliezer Yudkowsky, Rationality)