4 ms·
It reminds me of a philosophy class where the goal is to find an accurate and all-capturing definition of what a chair is. It is tremendously difficult, perhap
by azeirah 7y ago
It reminds me of a philosophy class where the goal is to find an accurate and all-capturing definition of what a chair is.
It is tremendously difficult, perhaps impossible.
- sosborn 7y agoThat exercise makes me feel like too many people believe that accurate == perfect.
- politelemon 7y agoI just tried to come up with a definition and I feel like I'm almost there but not quite. A chair is something you can sit on (but you can also sit on a rock) && it has a backrest (but the foot of a tree serves as a backrest) && it elevates you off the floor (but not all chairs take you above floor level very much) && it is manmade.
- namanyayg 7y agoAlso applies to a Sofa
- hhjinks 7y agoWhat is a sofa if not shared chair?
- ASalazarMX 7y agoNow I'm doubting if car seats are chairs too...
- angel_rs 7y agoNow you have to find an accurate and all-capturing definition to all the terms you used (manmade, floor, backrest, ...) It's a game you cannot win.
- com2kid 7y agoPlenty of ergonomic chairs don't have a backrest. There are also ergo chairs that you "kneel" on instead!
- setr 7y agoI believe the correct approach is by looking at purpose, and more importantly primary purpose, rather than try to describe the chair itself. Eg, a chair is any object whose primary purpose is to sit a single individual If it's meant to seat multiple people, it's a bench, a sofa, etc, but not a chair If it's meant to be extra comfortable, it might be a single-seat sofa, but this itself a chair If it's a rock, but positioned such that it's primary purpose is to sit an individual, such as next to a table, then it's a chair. And most notably, primary purpose is subjective -- it might be understood as a chair, or as a doorstop, depending on your viewpoint, and what you use it for.
- notJim 7y agoWhat about stools? I don't consider a stool to be a chair, I consider them two subtypes of seating. If someone told me to grab a chair and gestured to a stool I'd find it very slightly odd.
- setr 7y agoFine To sit an individual at close to, or at, a right angle in regards to their legs A small rock versus a big rock; Approximating a squat, or standing, is out of bounds But a stool may consistute a chair when sitting a child Regardless, I'm mainly talking about the approach to defining it, and that definition by purpose rather than structure is more likely to find a correct definition, not that my example definition is sufficient
- umvi 7y ago> a chair is any object whose primary purpose is to sit a single individual So is a zabuton[1] a chair? [1] https://www.dharmacrafts.com/01_zb/zabuton-mat https://www.dharmacrafts.com/01_zb/zabuton-mat
- mamon 7y agowhat if we add: "with one's feet firmly on the ground and legs bent at knee at more or less right angle?"
- ken 7y agoThis would classify a Honda Goldwing as a chair, but exclude the Balans kneeling chair.
- d4mi3n 7y agoA chair is anything used as a chair. :) EDIT: Addendum: It may also be worth asking what definition of truth you're using if we're going to be getting into philosophical arguments about what things are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth
- scoutt 7y agoAnd what about an expression like "accounting department chair"?
- klodolph 7y agoThere’s a bit of leeway here, since that’s the word used in a different sense. But I would say that if you ask someone to “define what a chair is” that the word is being used in one sense only, compared to what happens when you ask someone to “define what ‘chair’ means” which is about the word. That is, when we refer to a word like “chair” we use quotes, but without the quotes, we can say that an accounting department chair is not a chair. Alternatively, we could analyze “accounting department chair” as a use of metonymy.
- setr 7y agolimited namespace conflict? Same word, different abstract concept than the chair under question
- tux1968 7y agoI always assumed it came by naming the person who sat in the special seat after the seat itself.
- klodolph 7y agoThis has a name! It’s called “metonymy.” It’s incredibly common in casual speech and poses unique challenges for natural language processing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy