One might reasonably have hoped that the same admittedly unnatural mode would prove similarly worthwhile for concepts like “democracy”. After all, unnatural doesn’t necessarily mean worse. Now, for concepts like “democracy”, the unnatural approach does prove to be worse.
That’s because “democracy” involves dealing with interacting human minds and said minds run on metaphor.
Conceptual analysis also seems to fail in some cases that don’t involve dealing with human minds. For example, a conceptual-analysis approach to the concept of “living thing” versus “non-living thing” would probably be a mistake.
That’s because “democracy” involves dealing with interacting human minds and said minds run on metaphor.
Conceptual analysis also seems to fail in some cases that don’t involve dealing with human minds. For example, a conceptual-analysis approach to the concept of “living thing” versus “non-living thing” would probably be a mistake.