Everyone always starts with definitions. I used to think it’s what lazy people did to get their brains going: no matter what the topic or venue, you start by saying “the dictionary defines x as thus-and-such.” Only after I began to study philosophy did it really sink in that definitions matter. I mean, of course they matter, but beyond simply making sure that speaker and listener have roughly the same picture in mind when the word comes up, there is a matter of precision necessary simply to keep the speaker on-track. It’s too easy to equivocate without even realizing it (i.e. assigning different meanings to the same word). So we…