LESSWRONG
LW

A Human's Guide to Words

Aug 24, 2017 by Eliezer Yudkowsky

This sequence discusses the basic relationship between cognition and concept formation. 37 Ways That Words Can Be Wrong is a guide to the sequence.

233The Parable of the Dagger
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105
93The Parable of Hemlock
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19
99Words as Hidden Inferences
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23
103Extensions and Intensions
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32
67Similarity Clusters
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5
58Typicality and Asymmetrical Similarity
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69
157The Cluster Structure of Thingspace
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32
189Disguised Queries
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108
64Neural Categories
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17
297How An Algorithm Feels From Inside
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85
119Disputing Definitions
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46
62Feel the Meaning
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12
64The Argument from Common Usage
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23
53Empty Labels
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7
293Taboo Your Words
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133
93Replace the Symbol with the Substance
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17
103Fallacies of Compression
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27
75Categorizing Has Consequences
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86Sneaking in Connotations
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86Arguing "By Definition"
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41
86Where to Draw the Boundary?
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53
88Entropy, and Short Codes
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27
70Mutual Information, and Density in Thingspace
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28
69Superexponential Conceptspace, and Simple Words
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18
74Conditional Independence, and Naive Bayes
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16
51Words as Mental Paintbrush Handles
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76
49Variable Question Fallacies
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37
24137 Ways That Words Can Be Wrong
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78
Interlude
70An Intuitive Explanation of Bayes's Theorem
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