[lit-ideas] Re: Tautology, Patent & Other

  • From: "Erin Holder" <erin.holder@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 14:06:43 -0400

So it's only a tautology if it has fixed indexicals?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 2:02 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Tautology, Patent & Other


>
>
> In a message dated 9/21/2004 1:46:55 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> erin.holder@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
> Is  "that's that" a tautology?
>
>
>
>
>
> ----
>
> Well, yes, at the level of what is _explicated_ -- as all tautologies
> (patent and other) should be judged (_contra_ Geary). Note that 'that's
that'
> usually occurs as a closing utterance-part of one's conversational move,
>
>      "The king of Ruritania is dead, and that's  that"
>
> ---
>
> In terms of logic, that would be:
>
>         p -- & -- "tautology: e.g. p  v ~ p"
>
> The point seems to be that the tautological character of 'that's that'
(with
> fixed indexicals, that is) is retro-phorically translated to the previous
> (usually contingent) contingency ("The king of Ruritania is dead").
>
> The further implicature then seems to be: "And there's nothing we can do
> about it". Why _that_ is expressed by 'that's that' escapes me. (In
Italian,
> it's "this is this").
>
> Cheers,
>
> JL
>
>
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