Persuasive Definitions and Public Policy Arguments

ion. For Perelman, a definition should always be regarded as an argument, and should be evaluated as an argument. A definition should not be categorized as either purely arbitrary or as purely descriptive accounts of fixed meanings. The approach to definitions taken in the new dialectic is directly at odds with these popular views. In the new dialectic, argumentation is always evaluated as used for some purpose in a conversation. Definitions are viewed in the same contextual way. To understand a definition, you have to underWALTON stand the purpose that it was put forward by one party to fulfill, in relation to some other party in a conversational exchange. This dialectical view of definitions is opposed to essentialism. According to essentialism, the definition is based on a fixed meaning that does not vary with the context of conversation in which a word is used. According to the new dialectical view, a definition should be evaluated in light of the purpose it was put forward to fulfill, and this purpose changes, depending on what type of conversation the definition was supposed to be part of. Also, in the new dialectic, definitions are not trivial, because the putting forward of a definition of a key term or phrase can relate directly to the purpose of a conversation. For example, in a persuasion dialogue, the purpose of each party is to persuade the other party to come to accept some proposition that he did not accept before. In such a context of use, a persuasive definition could be quite appropriate. But in much of traditional logic, persuasive definitions are regarded as highly suspicious, if not altogether illegitimate. The difference between essentialism and the new dialectic can be seen with reference to lexical definitions, of the kind found in dictionaries. According to essentialism, a word has an objective meaning or "essence," and the dictionary tries to provide that meaning by giving the genus and differentia of the term. According to the new dialectical view, the purpose of a lexical definition is to explain the meaning (or usage) of the term to someone who already knows the meanings of other terms closely related to it. These other terms are likely to be more familiar and common. So I may not know the meaning of "hauberk" for example, an uncommon term. But I am likely to know the meaning of phrases like "coat" and "chain mail" that are used to explain what a hauberk is. In the new dialectical view, the purpose of putting forward a lexical definition of a term, as in a dictionary entry for example, is to explain 125