Abstract

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”The predilection for idiosyncratic, arbitrary, or even playful use of key concepts of any discipline, attended by the apparently natural tendency toward “humpty-dumptyism,” makes it possible to produce a plethora of brilliant generalizations, paradoxes, bons mots, and suchlike. All these invariably contribute to the successful autopoiesis of that discipline, as there is always something—to quote Bishop Joseph Hall, the author...