"The " general" definition may give you no hint as to the way in which a particular assertion is meant to be interpreted. When, therefore, as in formal debate, a proposition is advanced by persons other than those who discuss it, clearness in defining is not sufficient. In such cases a definition must have two qualities: it must be clear, and it must be satisfactory to the persons addressed. They must know what the speaker means, and they must be convinced that his meaning is the correct one, — correct for that particular proposition at the time and place and under the conditions of that particular debate. Otherwise, they may object in the end that he has proved, not the given proposition, but another which he has substituted for it by means of arbitrary definitions."
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Educators from the United StatesColumbia University alumniHarvard University alumniEconomists from the United StatesPeople from Boston
Original Language: English
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p. 27; partly cited in: Branham (2013, p. 39)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Trufant_Foster
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William Trufant Foster
(January 18, 1879 – October 8, 1950), was an American educator and economist, whose theories were especially influential in the 1920s. He was the first president of Reed College.
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