A philosophical or logical position that emphasizes the extension (actual referents or scope) of terms rather than their intensional properties or definitions.
From 'extensional' plus '-ism', which creates nouns for philosophical positions, doctrines, or systems. This is a technical term in logic and philosophy.
In philosophy of language, extensionalists say a word's meaning is determined by what it actually refers to in the world, while intensionalists care about how you define it—this debate has huge implications for how we understand meaning itself!
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