An instance would be,
supposing one had to secure the admission that the angry man desires
vengeance on account of an apparent slight, and were to secure this,
that 'anger' is a desire for vengeance on account of an apparent
slight: for, clearly, if this were secured, we should have universally
what we intend. If, on the other hand, people formulate propositions
relating to the actual terms themselves, they often find that the
answerer refuses to grant them because on the actual term itself he is
readier with his objection, e.g. that the 'angry man' does not
desire vengeance, because we become angry with our parents, but we
do not desire vengeance on them. Very likely the objection is not
valid; for upon some people it is vengeance enough to cause them
pain and make them sorry; but still it gives a certain plausibility
and air of reasonableness to the denial of the proposition. In the
case, however, of the definition of 'anger' it is not so easy to
find an objection.
Moreover, formulate your proposition as though you did so not for
its own sake, but in order to get at something else: for people are
shy of granting what an opponent's case really requires.
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