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:
“Manners are of such great consequence to the novelist that any kind will do. Bad manners are better than no manners at all, and because we are losing our customary manners, we are probably overly conscious of them; this seems to be a condition that produces writers.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)
“In this broad earth of ours,
Amid the measureless grossness and the slag,
Enclosed and safe within its central heart,
Nestles the seed perfection.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.”
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919)
“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)