Definitions are perhaps the most common source of dissension among humans.

Much, maybe all of human discourse is related to the qualification of some thing, and as such, uses terms with particular connotations to describe the debated object. In these disquisitions, the desire to agree upon a strict definition for a particular term is a common motion, especially in considerations of legality. Though this punctilio may appear indispensable, it often serves as an equivocation in argumentation.

Suppose a student defines slavery as unconsensual labor which is unpaid. Using this definition, he claims that because the public school system forces children to labor in study without pay, compounded with the fact that students’ attendance and performance funds the school system and thus the pockets of the faculty, “school is slavery.”

If the audience accepts his definition, especially likely if it's presented before the rationale, they may feel pressured to agree for the sake of logical consistency. As a result, they might conclude that 'school is slavery.'

We may take notice, however, that the statements “the public school system forces children to study without pay to fund educators” and “school is slavery” have much different sentiments. With the former, few will take moral issue. While the public school system is compulsory, most will grant that the ineptitudes of youth are lessened by the system, and that there is ultimately a net benefit on all parties.

In the case of the latter, however, the use of the term “slavery” implicates, or more accurately, intimates an egregiously inhumane condition. Very typically, this is indeed the case with the term. The use of a definition which incorporates quiddity but does not necessitate a rebarbative nature, however, allows for a duplicitous logical claim.

Therefore, it seems more toward fruitful debate to use express statements concerning the factual and moral nature of an object, as done in our comparison of statements. This precludes any extant intimations with definitions provided, in this case, an egregious moral nature.

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