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Re: SUO: Re: Starter KB V2 Question #8




Chris Menzel says:

Note this is, again, not ambiguity -- for a term to be ambiguous is for
it to have more than one meaning.  To be indefinite is to have a single
meaning which can be extended in more than one way. 
---

This is a subtle, technical distinction. If I look at a term and its axioms and
I can think of two ways to extend it and I'm not sure which one the axiom-writer
meant, or indeed whether he meant what he said (i.e. it entials both cnpts) then
from an informal point of view -- me looking at and trying to understand this term, 
I think of it as being ambiguous.  I am not sure what the author meant.

I'm not suggesting your comments are incorrect, -- only that there is a common sense
way of thinking about this which makes them seem incorrect. 

Perhaps it's because the word 'ambiguous' is self-describing?

Mike