Good Arguments by Richard A. Jr. Holland

Author:Richard A. Jr. Holland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian Education;REL011000;REL067030;REL080000;Reasoning;Logic
ISBN: 9781493410897
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2017-06-27T00:00:00+00:00

To Define or Not to Define

With all of this in mind, we are faced with the question of when, or how frequently, we should define our terms. Two extreme positions can be ruled out right away. On the one extreme, it is never helpful to attempt to define every term used, as in the following example:

By extreme we mean that there is a diverse spectrum of views, and the one we are mentioning now can be seen as the most stringent of its kind. By it we just intend to refer to the subject under consideration. By is we don’t mean to imply only present-tense action, but rather . . .

As you can see from this example, defining every term used is never necessary, and it always gets in the way of what we really want to do: talk about ideas. The other extreme would be to say that defining terms is never necessary, and the above discussion has demonstrated why that is not the best position to take.

When deciding whether to define a term, there are three principles to follow. First, define a term if you suspect your audience might not know it, or might not understand it the way you are using it. There is no easy formula for determining exactly when these conditions apply. You just need to know your audience and make adjustments accordingly. If you are speaking to a group of chemists, you probably don’t need to define the term solution as long as you are using it in a way that the chemists would expect. But if you are talking to a group of people who might be unfamiliar with the way this word is used and want to refer to a homogeneous mixture of two substances, one dissolved into the other, you probably need to mention that this is what you mean when you use the term solution. If you are speaking to a group of professional theologians, you probably don’t need to define much of the technical theological terminology you are using; but if you are speaking to a more general audience, such definitions might be necessary.

Second, define a term if it has more than one meaning that your audience might assume you intend. For example, we devote several passages in the beginning of this book to defining what we mean by the term argument. This is a word that has a variety of commonly accepted meanings, and had we not taken great care to describe which of those meanings we had in mind, you could have been quite confused. Hopefully, because we took the time to define our usage of the word, you are not confused.

Third, define terms that have disputed meanings. You may have picked up on the need for this in our discussion about the definition of the word atheism. If you want to use a term that you know has a disputed meaning, it will serve your argument well if you clearly state for your audience which meaning you want to use.

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