Overly Broad or Narrow Definitions
A definition is no good if it defines its subject with overly wide or narrow parameters. For example, "a shape with four sides of equal length" is not a good definition for 'square'. Why? Not only squares have four sides of equal length; rhombi do as well. This is proven by identifying not only the term being defined, but also the conditions in the definition. Likewise, defining a 'rectangle' as "a shape with four perpendicular sides of equal length" is not valid because it is too narrow.
Read more about this topic: Fallacies Of Definition
Famous quotes containing the words overly, broad, narrow and/or definitions:
“One who is overly proud will certainly meet defeat.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force.”
—Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
“[W]e are all guilty in some Measure of the same narrow way of Thinking ... when we fancy the Customs, Dresses, and Manners of other Countries are ridiculous and extravagant, if they do not resemble those of our own.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“What I do not like about our definitions of genius is that there is in them nothing of the day of judgment, nothing of resounding through eternity and nothing of the footsteps of the Almighty.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)