Abstract

At the outset it will be useful, I think, to distinguish the following components in the definitional situation:1. The “definitional relation” that holds, in a given case, between either a definiendum and definiens or a definiendum, definiens, and referent the symbol being defined, the defining symbol, which is usually complex and includes descriptive terms, and any member of the class of non-symbolic referents by means of references to which the descriptive terms in are given their semantical meaning—the relation between and being non-symmetrical, even though the relata are, in some contests, functionally equivalent. The former syntactical relation connects one symbol with another symbol ; the latter semantical relation also does this, but includes the additional factor of a descriptive reference, via the definiens, to a class of non-symbolic referents.