Whenever I hear the phrase, ‘We don’t need to argue semantics’, two thoughts come immediately to mind.
- We do need to argue semantics
- Your position is shrouded in the ambiguity that you’d prefer remain intact—even if you are unaware of the ambiguity
This might be something less, but I find that many philosophical arguments are caused—at least in part—by a lack of a common foundation.
A common response to a ‘definition check’ is ‘you know what I mean’ or ‘everyone knows what X means’. My response is, respectively, ‘I might know what you mean, but I want to be sure’ or ‘great, so this should be easy for you to provide’.
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