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Circular Definition
Definition
Examples
- An animal is human if and only if it has human
parents.
(The term being defined is "human". But in order to
find a human, we would need to find human parents. To
find human parents we would already need to know what
a human is.)
- A book is pornographic if and only if it contains
pornography.
(We would need to know what pornography is in order to
tell whether a book is pornographic.)
Proof
Identify the term being defined. Identify the conditions
in the definition. Show that at least one term used in the
conditions is the same as the term being defined.
References
Cedarblom and Paulsen: 184
13 August 1996
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