xzJoel wrote:
In case my post was too oblique - I was making the point that for at least 2500 years, people have been complaining about language and the inability to be clearly understood. Often times, people want to define terms preliminarily for the sake of argument, but since most people agree about what logic applies once the terms are defined, an argument is won or lost at the definitional stage. People are, therefore, hesitant to concede a definition for fear it may come back to bite them later.

Consequently, the definitional approach is generally a diversion from actually discussing the substance of the point being made. Better to be imprecise and at least possibly convey your point than to try to be precise and never get to say what you wanted to say. I think this is why you’ll find quite a few threads talking about language games and the way in which language fails when you start demanding too much precision from it.