From lojbab@xxxxxx.xxxx Sat Dec 11 12:06:04 1999 X-Digest-Num: 308 Message-ID: <44114.308.1689.959273825@eGroups.com> Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 15:06:04 -0500 From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" From: Pycyn@aol.com > >Problem 1: Given "for x, if x went to the party, then John knows thatx went >to the party" and that Paul went to the party, we might infer "John knows >that Paul went to the party." This sentence is ambiguous and the most likely >reading (it is usually said) may well be false. since John may never have >heard of Paul as such and may have him under a totally wrong-headed >description, so that we might never find out from John that Paul was there, >even though he knows of the man who is in fact Paul - whoever John may think >him to be -- that he went to the party. The set of answers solution for >questions needs quite a bit of extra work work to be addapted to indirect >questions (and propositional attitudes generally). Like including mappings >from the world to the belief worlds involved, for this one. And several >other things for the other ones. I think at one point that we decided that intentional descriptions and names are from the point of view of the speaker (bearing in mind the listener), so that if I use "la djan" in a sentence, the only thing that matters is whether I and the listener know who John is, not whether le djuno uses that name (or description) as part of lenu le djuno cu djuno. >Problem 2. From "Pegasus was the winged horse captured by Bellerophon" being >true, it is automatic to infer "There was a winged horse" and thence "Winged >horses have existed." But they haven't. This sounds like our ancient overly-discussed veridical unicorn problem. You know - whether "lo iunikorn" is equivalent to "da poi iunikorn" thereby claiming that at least one unicorn exists. Are you now suggesting xu'a as a resolution to this issue, or are you suggesting xu'a to kick us into some imaginary world when no otherwise stated. I'm not sure how any of this ties into performatives, or whether we need to start seeking boxes again zo'o. lojbab ---- lojbab ***NOTE NEW ADDRESS*** lojbab@lojban.org Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: see Lojban WWW Server: href=" http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/ " Order _The Complete Lojban Language_ - see our Web pages or ask me.