[lit-ideas] Re: Understanding Why The Compressor Shorted To Ground
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 16:06:51 -0800
Eric wrote that Walter (not being a classicist) asked
Not being much of a classicist, the reference escapes me. Where does
the paradox initially rear its ugly head?
and answered
I did a little searching. It's my misconstrual of Buridan's thirteenth
sophism.
A = "I know the compressor shorted to ground is false."
A isn't well formed. 'Is false' refers to a sentence or proposition or
statement, namely 'the compressor shorted to ground.' What is known is
that the sentence 'the computer shorted to ground' is false. Thus
A (rewritten) is
I know that 'the computer shorted to ground' is false, a fancy way of
saying, 'I know the computer didn't short to ground.
So there are two sentences, one embedded in the other.
A. I know 'the computer shorted to ground' is false.
and
B. "I know 'the computer shorted to ground' is false."
C. The computer shorted to ground.
D. I know it.
C and D are, of course, different sentences. Peter Geach was fond of
posing Buridan's sophismata as if they were items likely to appear on
the SAT. Nobody bit.
Robert Paul
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