[lit-ideas] Julie Krueger Gets An A+

  • From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:56:52 EST

Yost,
"What would a logician say...?"
 
There are no such things as logicians. I never met one and I know I won't. 
There are, rather, good logical students, and Eric got an A+ from R. Paul's 
 Mutton College online course, as does Ms. Krueger now. Such subtlety of 
analysis  can only overwhelm in the best sense our poverty-stricken (by Paris 
Hilton's  standards) instructors:
 
In a message dated 1/14/2010 3:35:26 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx writes:

Isn't  the "sometimes" rather implied, in that nothing is in a perpetual or 
static  state/  All humans must eat; this is a human, it eats, does not 
imply  that it is eating every second of the time.  Or that if the creature in  
question is not eating at the moment it is therefore not human.  Or does  
it?  

There's got to be a symbolic logic answer out there --  where's Speranza?
 
----
 
Exactly. "Implied" is the word. "Implicature" for long.
 
   "I used to live in Memphis".  Atlas says.
 
It so happens, he lives in Memphis now. Therefore the 'implied', "but not  
now" is cancelled.
 
   Cats used to purr, and they still do. Implied: when they feel  happy.
 
Dogs, which our brilliant student Julie prefers, on the other hand, never  
do. But they eat, almost every second, so they are, logically, humans, or 
more  like humans, if you want to use defeasibility.
 
Cheers,
 
J. L. Speranza


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