A sentence is made up of words, a statement is made in words.... Statements are made, words or sentences are used..

Usually it is uses of words, not words in themselves, that are properly called vague..

Certainly ordinary language has no claim to be the last word, if there is such a thing..

But surely, speaking carefully, we do not sense 'red' and 'blue' any more than 'resemblance' (or 'qualities' any more than 'relations'): we sense som….

Going back into the history of a word, very often into Latin, we come back pretty commonly to pictures or models of how things happen or are done..

Fact is richer than diction..

We become obsessed with 'truth' when discussing statements, just as we become obsessed with 'freedom' when discussing conduct...Like freedom, truth i….

Certainly ordinary language has no claim to be the last word, if there is such a thing. It embodies, indeed, something better thanthe metaphysics of ….

Let us distinguish between acting intentionally and acting deliberately or on purpose, as far as this can be done by attending to what language can t….

Is it true or false that Belfast is north of London? That the galaxy is the shape of a fried egg? That Beethoven was a drunkard? That Wellington won ….

Sentences are not as such either true or false..

I feel ruefully sure, also, that one must be at least one sort of fool to rush in over ground so well trodden by the angels..

Why should it not be the whole function of a word to denote many things?.

Faced with the nonsense question 'What is the meaning of a word?' and perhaps dimly recognizing it to be nonsense, we are nevertheless not inclined t….

After all we speak of people 'taking refuge' in vagueness -the more precise you are, in general the more likely you are to be wrong, whereas you stan….