Definitions in this archive record the current understanding of their subject matter. They make it possible to continue investigating, relate differences, and formulate subsequent questions. No definition acquires final status: its foundations and boundaries of application may be revised.
This general principle must be distinguished from the state of a particular question. The revisability of every definition and an already discovered need to revise this particular definition are different circumstances.
A Definition as a Current Fixation
A definition fixes a certain way of distinguishing its subject matter as it is understood at the present stage of investigation. Its affirmative formulation expresses the author’s current position. Preserving the possibility of revision does not require turning every sentence into a supposition or accompanying it with a caveat.
In this sense, every definition in the archive is a research thesis. Repeating this designation beside each definition is unnecessary: it pertains to the way the archive as a whole is used.
Revision may affect the wording, the boundaries of application, or the very foundation of the distinction. A definition therefore does not become final even when it has long enabled consistent investigation of different cases.
Working Stability
A particular definition can serve as a support for research over a long period: its foundation is sufficiently clarified for current tasks, its application makes it possible to hold the necessary distinctions, and emerging questions do not require changing its content immediately.
Such stability should be connected to work actually performed: arguments, cases examined, limitations clarified, and objections addressed. The age of the formulation alone says nothing about its degree of justification. A definition that has not been revised for a long time may simply never have been subjected to examination.
Working stability applies to a particular range of questions. Successfully applying a definition within that range does not establish its suitability in every possible case.
Definition Under Development
A separate designation is needed when a concrete question has already been discovered that affects the definition’s content or its applicability. For example, the meaning of an essential word remains unclear, a transition in the argument has not been established, or cases have been discovered in which the proposed boundary needs clarification.
The designation “Definition Under Development” records this current state of work. Alongside it, one should specify exactly what requires examination. The general phrase “everything can be revised” is no substitute for such an indication.
A definition under development may already be used in reasoning if it is clear what is accepted from it and what question remains open. Discovering a question does not invalidate work already performed, either: it identifies more precisely where that work must continue.
Justification and an Open Question
The degree to which a thesis is justified and the presence of a current research task do not form a single scale. A thoroughly developed definition may encounter a substantial problem. A new formulation in which no problems have yet been noticed does not thereby become equally well justified.
Therefore, in reading and editing, the following must be established separately:
- What supports the definition: which distinctions, arguments, and cases examined provide its foundation?
- What currently requires work: which question has been discovered, what part of the definition does it affect, and what must be clarified?
This makes it possible to distinguish accumulated definiteness from the current incompleteness of an investigation without attributing final truth to any text.
How This Is Indicated in the Archive
The general principle of revisability applies to all definitions. In a particular document, the designation “Definition Under Development” is needed wherever a present substantive uncertainty has been identified. A section containing questions shows what that uncertainty concerns and makes it possible to return to the investigation.
The absence of this designation does not mean that the definition has been verified, finally established, or is more stable than others. Such conclusions require examination of its foundations and the research performed.
When a question is clarified, the definition and its designation can be changed. If a new question is discovered, it should be recorded even in a formulation that has long been used. The archive preserves the possibility of this movement and does not turn the length of time a text has existed into a prohibition against revising it.
