[lit-ideas] The Air-Conditioned Tautology
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2004 20:24:57 EDT
J. M. Geary wrote:
>>Can anyone tell me which refrigerant goes in a freezer?
R. Paul replies:
Bipeds have two legs.
Either bipeds have two legs or they don't.
If p, then q; p, therefore q.
Deciduous trees lose their leaves seasonally.
If Alice is taller than Jane, and Jane is taller than Tom, Alice is taller
than
Tom.
2 + 2 = 4.
Mmm.
>Bipeds have two legs.
Except when they lose one in an accident --. E.g. Cole Porter.
>Either bipeds have two legs or they don't.
In a world that accepts Aristotle's Law of the Excluded Third -- not in
India, for example. (cf. Kamasutra).
>If p, then q; p, therefore q.
Assuming the truth-tables for 'if p, q' and 'if p, then q' are _equivalent_
(Grice thinks they are not).
>Deciduous trees lose their leaves seasonally.
Geoffrey Sampson once conducted a test -- in Lancaster, UK -- which showed
that things like that are actually _synthetic_ -- i.e. informational. His
example:
Fall [Autumn] follows Summer.
>If Alice is taller than Jane, and Jane is taller than Tom, Alice is taller
than Tom.
Assuming co-reference of the first and the second Jane, the first and second
Alice, and the first and second Tom -- and that there is no ambiguity (or
equivocation) in the use of 'tall' from one premise to the other (cf. 'a tall
order').
>2 + 2 = 4.
This was notably synthetic a priori, and hardly tautologous to Kant -- but
then maths was never his forte.
Cheers,
JL
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