Literary notes about Definite (AI summary)
The word “definite” is often employed to anchor a thought or description with clarity and precision, distinguishing exact ideas from those that are vague or indefinite. Authors use it to establish clear parameters in diverse contexts—from marking a tangible social status in a rural community ([1]) or specifying a character’s decision in a personal dispute ([2]) to delineating exact mental pictures and scientific measurements ([3], [4]). Philosophers and psychologists similarly favor the term when underscoring precise criteria for thought, action, or existence ([5], [6]), demonstrating its utility in both narrative development and abstract argumentation.
- What a subject, even in a countryside where a funeral is a social event and the manner of its furniture marks a definite social status!
— from The Best Short Stories of 1917, and the Yearbook of the American Short Story - Besides this business, Stepan Arkadyevitch had promised his sister Anna to obtain from Karenin a definite answer on the question of divorce.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - Thus, NAMES are just as 'true' or 'false' as definite mental pictures are.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James - It is a quæsitum of a perfectly definite kind,—we can always tell whether the actual machines offered us do or do not agree with what we mean by it.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James - As this denotes completed action at a definite time, it is called the perfect definite .
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - It is precise even if it is false, provided some very definite occurrence would have been required to make it true.
— from The Analysis of Mind by Bertrand Russell
