[lit-ideas] Or Not
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 06:06:09 -0400 (EDT)
In a message dated 4/20/2013 8:55:53 P.M. UTC-02,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
If one adds "or not" as a qualifier to everything, does that mean we are
right about everything or not? Or does it just mean that by claiming both an
assertion and its negation we are not taking the risk of being wrong about
anything we claim, or not?
We have discussed this before. The locus classicus, as R. D. Fenton, a
Latin teacher, calls it, is, no doubt, Alice in Wonderland:
THE WHITE KNIGHT (to Alice): You look sad. Let me sing you a song to
comfort you.
ALICE: Is it too long?
THE WHITE KNIGHT: It _is_ long. But very _very_ beautiful. Everybody that
hears me sing it -- either it brings the tears into their eyes, or
ALICE: Or? ("Alice interrupted, for the Knight had made a sudden pause.")
THE WHITE KNIGHT: Or not.
----
McEvoy's analysis:
THESIS 1:
McEvoy's question:
"If one adds "or not" as a qualifier to
everything, does that mean we
are right about everything or not?"
Answer (One Of Many): Or not, I guess.
THESIS 2:
McEvoy's question:
"Or [rather] does it just mean that by
claiming both an assertion and its
negation we are not taking the risk
of being wrong about anything we
claim, or not?
Answer (One of Many): Again, or not, I guess.
-----
The best way to deal with this is symbolically.
I will introduce "v" as the disjunction operator and refer to "The
Genealogy of Disjunction", a book -- or rather, the title of a book.
The Latins used "vel" as "or". The particle survives in Italian, in some
place names.
On the other hand, the Latins also used "aut".
In English, "or" is short of "other", which complicates the logical form.
Strictly, it means "second".
Aristotle saw this and talks of a _third_ man as an impossibility (in his
view).
---- And so on.
Cheers,
Speranza
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