Skip to main content

Posts

Chapter 3: Definitions of Critical Thinking

Definitions   Definitions are very useful in explaining and clarifying meaning. A typical definition has two parts: The definiendum : (the term being defined) <a word> The definiens : (the words that define the definiendum) <definition> For Example, bachelor (definiendum) = unmarried man (definiens) People often use is instead of the equality sign in giving definitions—for example, a bachelor is an unmarried man .   A term is a referring expression in a language made up of one or more words, such as The United Nations , Beethoven , mammals , purple , etc. The referent of a term is what the term refers to. So the terms listed above refer respectively to an organisation, a person, a class of animals, and a particular shade of colour. A term such as Mount Everest refers to a real physical thing in the world, but other terms such as truth and 13467 refer to more abstract things. The set of things a term refers to is known as the extension of the term. So dolphins , hum

Chapter 1 & 2: INTRODUCTION & SOUND and METRE in POETRY