Variability in direction of evaluation is often invoked in debates between “separabilists” and “inseparabilists” which occupy much of the literature. This debate concerns whether thick terms and concepts are some kind of irreducible fusions of evaluation and description or whether these two aspects can be separated or “disentangled” in some way. Broadly pragmatic views on the relationship between thick terms and concepts and evaluation suggest that some kind of separability will be possible, since they treat evaluation and description as bearing different relations to thick terms and concepts. Thus it is no accident that the Variability Argument is meant to apply against the sorts of inseparabilist views which one typically finds in the literature. Presumably the thought is that it would be difficult to explain how thick terms and concepts could be contextually variable in evaluative valence if evaluation and description were inseparable.
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