Problems with Definitions in Escrow

[blancw@pylon.com]

Responding to msg by James A. Donald:

If you *define* reputations to be something formal and  
explicit, and say that the system will work because 
people  guard their reputations, then reputations 
become something  that can be most efficiently granted 
and withdrawn by some  centralized authority.
    . . . . . . . . . . . 
I am complaining about dangerous carelessness in your 
use  and definition of words.  Your use of the word 
reputation  is as fraught with frightful consequences 
as Marx's use  of the word "value".
.................................................................
....

Perhaps when you decry the establishment of 'definitions' you 
mean that a concept should not be circumbscribed tightly within 
the boundaries of a pre-determined range of meaning?  

I thought  what Hal intended by 'examining & defining' a term, 
was simply to assess what it means to those who are seeking to 
apply it, rather than intending to confine it in advance of any 
real knowledge of its actual reference.

Blanc