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These files are maintained strictly for historical reference, research, and recordkeeping purposes,
and the content has not been altered or updated since archiving.
Content on this site may not meet current digital accessibility standards.
If you require an alternative, accessible format of any information found on this site,
please contact Bruce Jones, bjones@ucsd.edu to request an accommodation.
On Sun, 22 Nov 2009, mike cole wrote:
Again, in every case of "definition" we have (a largely unexplicated, because you can never say everything about anything) a large, pre-supposed set of theoretical assumptions about the processes being defined.
On definition, here's Nietzsche:"all concepts in which an entire process is semiotically concentrated defy definition; only something which has no history can be defined"
Nietzsche made that observation in the context of inquiring into the meaning [_Sinn_] of "punishment":
"With regard to the [fluid] element in punishment, . . . its 'meaning', the concept 'punishment' presents . . . not just one meaning but a whole synthesis of 'meanings' [_Sinnen_]: the history of punishment up to now in general, the history of its use for a variety of purposes, finally crystallizes[*] in a kind of unity which is difficult to dissolve back into its elements, difficult to analyse and, this has to be stressed, is absolutely _undefinable_."
pp. 52-53 in Nietzsche, Friedrich. _On the Genealogy of Morality_. Translated by Carol Diethe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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