Word of the Day

ostension

\Os*ten"sion\, n. [L. ostensio a showing: cf. F. ostension. See Ostend.] (Eccl.) The showing of the sacrament on the altar in order that it may receive the adoration of the communicants.

(logic, philosophy of language) the attempt to provide a non-linguistic definition of a term by pointing at something to which it applies. Although useful enough for some primitive purposes, ostensive definitions are systematically ambiguous, since they poorly discriminate among things and their temporal features. Recommended Reading: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Blue and Brown Books (HarperCollins, 1986); Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations, ed. by Marie McGinn (Routledge, 1997); Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy and Language, ed. by Alice Ambrose and Morris Lazerowitz (St. Augustine, 1996); and William H. Brenner, Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (SUNY, 1999).

In an apparent case of ostension (folklore becoming actual news), wealthy Charles Felder, 71, died after his cleaner, 47-year-old Pauline Jassey, unplugged his life support machine to use the vacuum cleaner in his bedroom in Dallas, Texas. Daily Record - 7 March 1998