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jrlewis's picture

alternatives exlcude

A name is a definition, recounting the properties of specific concepts or things.  The act of ascribing a name to a concept or thing makes it determinate.  To say what something is, is to also to say what it isn’t.  So every “arbitrary” decision in the process of nomenclature that we make, has consequences.  The system of nomenclature we construct constricts the possible stories we can tell about the named concepts or things. 

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