[lit-ideas] Re: Tautology, Patent & Other

  • From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 14:02:57 EDT

 
 
In a message dated 9/21/2004 1:46:55 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
erin.holder@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Is  "that's that" a tautology?





----
 
Well, yes, at the level of what is _explicated_ -- as all tautologies  
(patent and other) should be judged (_contra_ Geary). Note that 'that's that'  
usually occurs as a closing utterance-part of one's conversational move,
 
     "The king of Ruritania is dead, and that's  that"
 
---
 
In terms of logic, that would be:
 
        p -- & -- "tautology: e.g. p  v ~ p"
 
The point seems to be that the tautological character of 'that's that'  (with 
fixed indexicals, that is) is retro-phorically translated to the previous  
(usually contingent) contingency ("The king of Ruritania is dead").
 
The further implicature then seems to be: "And there's nothing we can do  
about it". Why _that_ is expressed by 'that's that' escapes me. (In Italian,  
it's "this is this"). 
 
Cheers,
 
JL


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