THE USE OF TERMS Use of words under normative definitions is pretty poor instrum

THE USE OF TERMS

Use of words under normative definitions is pretty poor instrumentalism. What happens to tools when you leave them lying around for any idiot to use? Well, they fall victim to the tragedy of the commons – no one takes care of those tools. They abuse them, they misuse them, and they care not what happens to them. And they are rarely if ever suitable for precise work – ever again. But somewhere exist the original precise versions of these tools, or their offspring, that reflect the precision necessary of master craftsmen. These tools are suitable for precise work. So whenever possible its in your interest to find the precise terms – because the origins of terms was that they solved problems for their creators. It is the problems they solved that constitute their necessary functions, not the various uses and abuses and misuses, that the common man as put them through in opening his barrels, cans and bottles. However, we must also keep in mind that dishonest men and well intentioned fools craft tools of deception that are equally precise. And again, is the problem that they solve with their deception that we must discover, not what they intended us to deduce from it. This is the operational approach to language: to discover the problem solved by the statement, not the intention of the author.