Glossary of Terms and Concepts Used in This Site

If you come across a word or phrase you do not understand, please contact me. I will then add a definition or an explanation of that term.

Fuzzy Concept

A fuzzy concept is one that is used in different ways by different writers so that it is  hard to know what it means in any given context.
Concepts vary in their fuzziness. At one end of the scale there are highly precise concepts. Take for example the concept of an equilateral triangle. This is a triangle with sides of equal length. Everyone can look at a triangle, measure the sides and agree whether or not it is an equilateral triangle.
At the other end of the scale there are concepts that are very imprecise in their definition. A good example of this is terms like ‘justice’ and ‘education’. People may define these so differently that one person’s idea of justice might be someone else’s idea of injustice (think of the use of the death penalty for example), or that one person thinks of a ‘education’ someone else might dismiss as mere ‘schooling.’
Practically every important concept used in this site is a fuzzy one. This means that you need to work out for yourself what you think a concept means, and then see how it is being used to see if your understanding is helpful in the context it is being used.
Do not assume that you have to find THE right definition, as there is never a single right definition of a fuzzy concept.