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Comment by Brolo_Swaggins on A revolution in philosophy: the rise of conceptual engineering · 2021-03-05T22:09:50.544Z · LW · GW

I'm reminded of a discussion I had with a friend, regarding the nature of concepts. While conversing, it occurred to me that "knowledge" can be thought of as a definition, which can be analyzed in terms of binary classification. The definition's aptness is a product of its sensitivity and selectivity, regarding how well the definition fits the intended set of examples. Loosely,

utility(knowledge) = selectivity * sensitivity, where 
    selectivity = coherence = justification = information
    sensitivity = correspondence = truth = description

I'm not very familiar with the current state of Philosophy. Is this known/discussed in the field already? Is it worth making a small post about? idk if this is novel, old news, or wildly misguided. I skimmed the Stanford Encyclopedia entry, which mentions "selectivity", but doesn't seem to follow the idea as far.