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Language is a modeling tool #233

Open ajschumacher opened 3 years ago

ajschumacher commented 3 years ago

as a way of introducing modeling?

There's more than one way to do it (C sharp vs. D flat, synonyms, phrasing, denotation vs. connotation)

Multiple referents: "There's a dog" - is that about the world, or about what you're perceiving? Can be even more indirect: the world, the video doorbell picture, what you're perceiving (etc.)

Clarification that probably isn't necessary: Not talking about models of language here, as in descriptivist vs. prescriptivist. https://fs.blog/2020/10/descriptions-arent-prescriptions/ etc.

ajschumacher commented 3 years ago

compare:

symbolic reduction fallacy and nominal fallacy (mentioned in #239 book, page 100)

ajschumacher commented 3 years ago

the same way that every useful word is incompletely defined by its definition. the problem with datasets goes deeper, which is that they are essentially definitions without words

Kyle McDonald, https://twitter.com/kcimc/status/1315049704665669632

"What’s a sandwich" as example of (assumed) definitions not being as clear as you think