[lit-ideas] Re: Try a Logic Problem
- From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 9 Jul 2006 09:17:44 -0400
Robert Paul wrote:
"This may very well be, but you're now telling a story in which
Inspector Quine uses a different form of words than he did (in fact)
use. Changing the example, as everyone knows, although sometimes
illuminating, is also sometimes misleading, as here, when the new
example isn't analogous with the one under consideration."
I agree it wasn't as helpful as I had hoped. Long day, chipped tooth,
lots of travelling, a funeral, etc. all contributed to this. My
apologies.
Robert continues:
"I'll leave it to Phil to explain how 'No, that is not true,' doesn't
involve some reference to how things are"
It does. At the very same time as, and precisely because, it involves a
reference to a sentence. Which is why I find the fact/language
distinction dubious.
Robert continues with a "straightforward" solution:
"you say the world's like that; but it isn't."
Nothing wrong with this. The problem arises when the "it isn't" bit is
explained as 'facts that exist' As long as the "it isn't" bit is
explicated as knowledge, I am happy with Robert's solution. However, I
suspect Robert has something more in mind for he goes on to say:
"I say: 'There are four dots in a row.'
The world says: • • •
Phil says: 'What you said isn't true.'
Phil is right, but his grounds for saying it would (I think) be that
there are three, not four dots, which is supported by
• • •
I'll call this a state of affairs, an arrangement of things in the world
outside the sentence, a non-linguistic entity, perhaps."
However, the world does not separate out, does not say, '• • •' as
being a state of affairs or an arrangement of things. That is what we
do when we say 'This is called three dots in a row' and point
accordingly. So when we see '• • •' it is that "arrangement of things
in the world" along with the English sentence 'This is three dots in a
row' that makes it possible to say, "It is not true that there are four
dots in a row". A straightforward solution that drops out unnecessary
causes like that mythological 'non-linguistic entity'.
Sincerely,
Phil Enns
Toronto, ON
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