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The Intension and Extension of Terms
The Intension and Extension of Terms
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Definitions and their Purposes
Plato- to explicate the meaning of certain eternal essence or forms Modern logicians: to
explicate the meaning of words.
Definition, for modern logicians, is a group of words that assign meaning for some word or
group of words. Definition consists of two parts:
2. Definiens : the word or group of words that does the defining. Definiens is not the
meaning of the definiendum, but a symbol.
Other Philosophers: argue that since definition result in clarification of language, they
provide a means for the discovery of deeper philosophical truths.
1. Stipulative Definitions: It assigns meaning for the first time. It involves coining a
Example: “Tigon” means an animal which is hybrid from male tiger and female lion.
2. Lexical Definitions: It is used to report the meaning that a word already has in a
language. They are dictionary definitions They may be true or false They have a purpose of
eliminating ambiguity. Example: ”Fiduciary” means a having to do with a confidence or trust; a
person who holds something in trust. An Ambiguous word: when the word can be interpreted
as having two or more clearly distinct meanings in a given context. Example: sound, right,
bank,race, light
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A Vague word: when there are borderline cases such that it is impossibele to tell whether the
word applies to them or not. Example: love, happiness, peace rich, fresh, poor, normal,
blind, member, contract, equality, teacher, force, criminal, moment of death etc. Example:
”Blind” means, for federal income tax purposes, either the inability to see better than 20/200 in
the better eye with glasses or having a field of vision Unlike Stipulative definition, a great deal
entity or entities denoted by definiendum. Example: scientific words such as: light, force,
mass, acceleration and philosophical words: good, mind God, change, idea, cause.
emotionally charged or value laden meaning to a word. Example: “Capitalism means” the
economic system in which humanity is scarified to the wanton quest for money, and mutual
understanding and respect are replaced by alienation, greed and selfishness.
Definitional Techniques
Example: “Board” means this or this and this and this (as you point it)
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3. Definition by subclass :- It assigns a meaning to a term by partially or completely naming
subclasses of the class denoted by the term. Example: “Philosophy” means metaphysics,
epistemology, logic, ethics, or aesthetics.
1. Synonymous definition It is one which the definiens is a single word that connotes the same
attributes as the definirndum. Example: “Physician” means doctor
Answer no 2
Conditional statements :-
The reason is the antecedent and the consequent show a causal connection; not inferential
relationship.
Example:-
A single conditional statement is not an argument. A conditional statement may serve as either
the premise or the conclusion (or both) of an argument.
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A conditional statement is an "if ... then ... " statement. Every conditional statement is made up
of two component statements. The component statement immediately following the "if" is
called antecedent, and the one following the "then" is called the consequent. conditional
statement is not arguments, because they fail to meet the criteria given earlier. In an
argument, at least one statement must claim to present evidence.
Answer no 3
Some typical conclusion indicators are - Therefore , accordingly , entails that, wherefore , we
may conclude, hence, thus , it must be that, it follows that, consequently , for this reason,
implies that, we may infer, so as a result. Whenever a statement follows one of these
indicators, it can usually be identified as the conclusion. By process of elimination the other
statements in the argument are the premises.
Example:-
Tortured prisoners will say anything just to relieve the pain. Consequently , Torture is not a
reliable method of interrogation.
Since, as indicated by, because, for, in that, may be inferred from, as, given that, seeing that, for
the reason that, in as much as, owing to etc.
The premises indicator "for" goes with both "Wilderness provides essential habitat for wildlife,
including endangered species," and "it is a natural retreat from the stress of daily life." These
are the premise.
Example :
Answer no 4
Non inferential passages :- are unproblematic passages that lack a claim that anything is being
proved. Such passages contain statements that could be premises or conclusions (or both), but
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what is missing is a claim that any potential premise supports a conclusion or that any potential
conclusion is supported by premises. passages of this sort include warnings, piece of advice,
statements of belief or opinion , loosely associated statements, and reports. A warning is a form
is expression that is intended to put someone on guard against a dangerous or detrimental
situation.
Example:-
If no evidence is given to prove that such statement are true, then there is no argument.
Answer no 5
1. Deductive Argument
In deductive arguments the conclusion is claimed to follow necessarily or absolutely from the
premises. A deductive argument is an argument in which if the premises are assumed to be
true, it is impossible for the conclusion to be false.
Example:
2. Inductive Argument
In these arguments the conclusion is claimed to follow only probably from the premises. It is an
argument in which if the premises are assumed to be true, then based on that assumption it is
improbable that the conclusion is false.
Example:
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Therefore, Engineering students are from Tigray region.
Answer no 6
1. Increasing Intension: when each term in the series (except the first) connotes more
attributes (become more specific) than the one preceding it.
2. Decreasing Intension: when each term in the series (except the first) connotes less
attributes (become more general) than the one preceding it.
3. Increasing extension: when each term in the series (except the first) denotes a class having
more members than the one preceding it.
4. Decreasing Extension: when each term in the series (except the first) denotes a class having
fewer members than the one preceding it.
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