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On Tue, 12 Aug 2003, Nick Nicholas wrote:
> I accept that Quine is old fashioned, and Montague is more in tune with
> natural language gadri (when Monty makes sense); and that in a real
> sense the intension is more basic than the extension. I also accept that
> Bob, when he fumbles for a reason to reject {lo} = {da poi}, is probably
> thinking intensions without realising it. I further accept that my past
> usage, and that of everyone else, pretty much, as treated intensions as
> {lo} without realising it, and that making {lo} intensional would make
> all that past usage legitimate, bring Lojban in line with natlangs, and
> make it easier to learn.
That's a sales pitch I can't reject. Where do I sign up? Especially as,
according to my own findings, "non-specific" is an related to, if not an
explicit indicator of intension. It certainly seems that intension was
part of the intention of lo.
> that's irrational, so be it; but rationality is not the only criterion
> we are working with --- if it were, we would accept all optimisations
> without question. The onus may still be on me to prove that a fully
> extensionalist system will work; but a fully intensionalist system
Are you sure that their ideas abolish extension from Lojban? I don't
believe they do.
From Jorge's link I see this discussion has been going on since 1995 or
earlier, and the page he linked to bore a disturbing similarity to the
present affair. Some number of people either knew these issues were
completely unresolved and swept the matter under the rug, or solved them
to their own satisfaction but kept the results under their hats. But any
ailment that lasts this long requires strong medicine, and if that means
violating the axioms of Lojban, which, inasmuch as they exist, are barely
understood but by one person, then so be it!
--
The Pentagon group believed it had a visionary strategy that would
transform Iraq into an ally of Israel, remove a potential threat to the
Persian Gulf oil trade and encircle Iran with U.S. friends and allies...