Arguments for Abandonment

Abstract This chapter presents a general theory of abandonment. This is a theory of the conditions under which language should be abandoned. It presents a framework for thinking about what constitutes a good and theoretically interesting reason for abandonment, how to implement such abandonment, and the consequences of it. The chapter outlines four kinds of arguments for abandonment: mismatch, verbal disputes, consequentialist arguments, and Can Do Better, as well as the relationships between abandonment and related phenomena such as amelioration, replacement, elimination, and reduction. It argues that the presence of all four arguments is the strongest case for abandonment—the Perfect Argument.