An ostensive definition conveys the
meaning of a term by pointing out examples. This type of
definition is often used where the term is difficult to define verbally, either because the words will not be understood (as with children and new speakers of a language) or because of the nature of the term (such as colors or sensations). It is usually accompanied with a gesture
pointing to the object serving as an example, and for this reason is also often referred to as "
definition by pointing".
Overview
An
ostensive definition assumes the questioner has sufficient understanding to recognize the type of information being given.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian- British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is consi ...
writes:
So one might say: the ostensive definition explains the use—the meaning—of the word when the overall role of the word in language is clear. Thus if I know that someone means to explain a colour-word to me the ostensive definition "That is called 'sepia' " will help me to understand the word.... One has already to know (or be able to do) something in order to be capable of asking a thing's name. But what does one have to know?
The limitations of ostensive definition are exploited in a famous argument from the ''
Philosophical Investigations'' (which deal primarily with the
philosophy of language
In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy of language), meanin ...
), the
private language argument
The private language argument argues that a language understandable by only a single individual is incoherent, and was introduced by Ludwig Wittgenstein in his later work, especially in the ''Philosophical Investigations''. The argument was cent ...
, in which
Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is consi ...
asks if it is possible to have a private language that no one else can understand.
[Wittgenstein, Ludwig. ''Philosophical Investigations'', §258.]
John Passmore states that the term was first defined by the British logician
William Ernest Johnson (1858–1931):
"His neologisms, as rarely happens, have won wide acceptance: such phrases as "ostensive definition", such contrasts as those between ... "determinates" and "determinables", "continuants" and "occurrents", are now familiar in philosophical literature" (Passmore 1966, p. 344).
See also
*
Comprehension
*
Enumerative definition
*
Exemplification
*
Extensional and intensional definitions
*
Intension
In any of several fields of study that treat the use of signs — for example, in linguistics, logic, mathematics, semantics, semiotics, and philosophy of language — an intension is any property or quality connoted by a word, phrase, or ano ...
*
Ostension
Notes
References
*
*
* (in particular Sect.11)
Further reading
* Chad Engelland (ed.) ''
Ostension: Word Learning and the Embodied Mind''. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2014
Logic
Pragmatics
Semantics
Semiotics
Definition
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