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b_b  ·  4049 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Change using Theseus's Ship

How would you explain a jury trial to someone who had never observed one? Descriptivism doesn't work, because there are more levels of understanding than an atomized one (and besides, the putative words you would use to describe a higher level concept still need definitions themselves). Thesues' ship is Theseus' ship, because we say it is. The boards from which it is made are irrelevant. There is no baser level of explaining than pointing at an object an naming it. This is how we learn language.