Note 55 — Chapter III

By a verbal dispute is meant a dispute that turns on the meaning of words. Dr Venn observes that purely verbal disputes are very rare, since “a different usage of words almost necessarily entails different convictions as to facts” (Empirical Logic, p. 296). This is true and important; it ought indeed always to be borne in mind that the problem of scientific definition is not a mere question of words, but a question of things. At the same time, disputes which are partly verbal are exceedingly common, and it is also very common for their true character in this respect to be unrecognised. When this is the case, the controversy is more likely than not to be fruitless. The questions whether proper names are connotative, and whether every syllogism involves a petitio principii, may be taken as examples. We certainly go a long way towards the solution of these questions by clearly differentiating between different meanings which may be attached to the terms employed.