Ubs, PLEASE join the REAL world sometime!! Definitions are NOT arbitrary unless you want total chaos!!
Word definitions are contractual. In order for language to work we need a common set of rules for what means what. In that sense word definitions are not arbitrary.
(The problem is that this is all theoretical, and in practise everyone use slightly different rule sets. They tend to be quite similiar, but never identical. Which leads to mix ups.)
However, words mean what we define them to mean. There's nothing that says this
this has to be referred to as a bike and
this has to be referred to as a car, and if we just all agree to start referring to them the other way around then it's bikes that are involved in the most traffic accidents, not cars. In that sense word definitions are arbitrary.
Within the rule system we all use different words aren't arbitrary. But the rule system itself is. I think. This isn't exactly an easy thought to describe.
Seriously? So your example of intellectual integrity is "well, if we don't like the answer we get, we'll just redefine the words so our glorious theories actually hold up" What a crock of shit. I wish I could get away with that sort of tripe on the shop floor when I'm engineering a project, but, you know, the real world doesn't care for that sort of nonsense. I'm definitely in the wrong business if y'all actually think this is OK.
If it's part of the definition of earth that it's flat, what do you do when you, as a scientist, discovers that it's actually round? Do you say "ok, it appears we're not actually living on earth, we live on [insert new planet name here]". Or do you try and redefine earth so that it better reflects the new discovery that earth isn't flat? If the definition of "ship" was "an object made of wood that transports things on water", removing the "made of wood" part to better suit your theory on ships doesn't seem all that strange, does it?
What has happened with sadism is that psychologists have looked at the common definition of sadism, looked at the world, discovered that the category sadism as it's commonly defined doesn't make much sense and then they've tried to change the category sadism to better reflect reality. Why? Because categories that doesn't properly reflect reality are useless and only leads to spreading confusion.
I can't see why you consider this a scam.
(And when I talk about psychologists I talk about those active in the field of psychology, in case anyone's wondering. I use it because it's a lot easier to write than "those active in the field of psychology".)
Übereil