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True, but do definitions not encourage a more thorough analysis? If A is a male, B is a female, C is a male, your operator definition is even troublesome withi
by MrQuincle 8y ago
True, but do definitions not encourage a more thorough analysis?
If A is a male, B is a female, C is a male, your operator definition is even troublesome within a species.
What kind of mathematical object comes closer to this abstraction of a species? Maybe it's not about names and boundaries, but about getting to understand things for which you need abstractions.
I always appreciate when people do not fuss about definitions and easily change them but reason consistently after indicating their interpretation of those concepts.
- teekert 8y agoAgreed, of course we need definition to discuss, and indeed we should be fluent about them. This is difficult to explain to a child or indeed to some adults.
- baddox 8y agoI don’t think your example really applies, because no one expects the definition of “species” to imply that the “individual A can mate with individual B” relation to be transitive.