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And Rosta scripsit:
> {mi djica lo nu I was born rich} invokes an
> imaginary ('fictional') world in which "da nu I was born rich",
> and says that I want that the world in which I do the wanting
> was the world in which "da nu I was born rich".
But under the standard semantics of Lojban events, they exist
(i.e. da nu broda is true) as long as the obvious presuppositions
are met: "da nu do jbena ricfu" is true in any world where you exist
and the notion "born rich" makes any sense at all. To assert that
an event actually occurs, viz. that you were born rich, we have
to say "lo nu do jbena ricfu cu fasnu".
> So to reiterate, I am happy to accept that 'imaginary' worlds
> need to be handled differently from 'potential' worlds, but I
> have no patience with those who want to deny us a distinction
> among imaginary worlds and the real world.
Explicit means to express such a distinction are problematic, however,
for the same reason that the explicit "truth" and "falsehood" attitudinals
are: they are most needed when they can be least believed.
Ray Smullyan discusses a related point in his god-and-mortal dialogue,
where the god (God? can't tell from the typography) says "Look, if you
were to ask me 'Do you really exist?' and I answered either yes or no,
what would that actually prove either way? Absolutely nothing!"
(paraphrased).
> * true of This World
> * true of some/a certain World but not of This World
> * true of some/a certain World but not necessarily of This World
After accepting the distinction between the fictional and the potential,
here you are blurring it again.
> The need is desperate because we often talk about imaginary things,
> especially imaginary events.
So we do, but we talk about them with the accents of truth.
> But it is intrinsic to the nature of lo nu that it is manifest in
> spacetime, which is why it is necessary to distinguish between
> actual and imaginary events.
*Potentially* manifest.
--
Said Agatha Christie / To E. Philips Oppenheim John Cowan
"Who is this Hemingway? / Who is this Proust? jcowan@hidden.email
Who is this Vladimir / Whatchamacallum, http://www.reutershealth.com
This neopostrealist / Rabble?" she groused. http://www.ccil.org/cowan
--author unknown to me; any suggestions?