[YG Conlang Archives] > [jboske group] > messages [Date Index] [Thread Index] >
On Sat, Jan 11, 2003 at 03:52:21PM -0500, Invent Yourself wrote:
> On Sat, 11 Jan 2003, Jordan DeLong wrote:
> > > > But last time it came up, the general view seemed to be that ka'e
> > > > covers not all imaginable worlds but only worlds that are somehow
> > > > potential alternatives to this one. That is, ka'e is taken to
> > > > be equivalent to su'omu'ei, and {su'omu'ei broda} means something
> > > > like "in some relevant worlds that are variants of this world but
> > > > in which zo'e is the case, broda".
> > > >
> > > > So actually, yes McGovern was a ka'e, but Sherlock Holmes isn't
> > > > and not all johannine nu are ka'e fasnu.
> > >
> > > No good! There is only one reality, all others are (equally) unreal.
> > > President McGovern, Irish Socrates, and the one where I drank hot
> > > chocolate last night are all equally false. The Verification Principle
> > > shows this.
> >
> > Can the Verification Principle be verified? Or is it just meaningless?
>
> Its presence can be verified if you design a test that determines if a
> person is following it, and subject someone to it. However, you probably
> meant to ask if the veracity of the principle could be tested or not. The
> answer is no; it's a prescription for human behavior, or a definition of
> the word "meaningful", not a statement about reality. However, "Pres.
> McGovern is more real than Sherlock Holmes" purports to be a statement
> about reality, but is actually meaningless.
I disagree. "M is more real than SH" is a statement about the
amount of similarity between hypothetical circumstances and real
circumstances. It is not about reality only.
But anyway, if the veracity of the VP can't be verified, then by
the VP we should view it as meaningless. So the VP is self-contradictory,
even if it is only supposed to be some sort of ethical code or
something, as you say.
--
Jordan DeLong - fracture@hidden.email
lu zo'o loi censa bakni cu terzba le zaltapla poi xagrai li'u
sei la mark. tuen. cusku
Attachment:
binDYWyCCHkMV.bin
Description: application/ygp-stripped