From eye_onus@yahoo.com Wed Apr 23 19:10:52 2003 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Wed, 23 Apr 2003 19:10:52 -0700 (PDT) Received: from web10905.mail.yahoo.com ([216.136.131.41]) by digitalkingdom.org with smtp (Exim 4.12) id 198WCE-0002c4-00 for lojban-list@lojban.org; Wed, 23 Apr 2003 19:10:46 -0700 Message-ID: <20030424021045.27298.qmail@web10905.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [132.178.211.18] by web10905.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Wed, 23 Apr 2003 19:10:45 PDT Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 19:10:45 -0700 (PDT) From: Jon MacLeod Subject: [lojban] Re: [OT] God Syndrome (OR: The why of 'why') To: lojban-list@lojban.org In-Reply-To: <20030423165411.N2990-100000@granite.thestonecutters.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-archive-position: 4921 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: eye_onus@yahoo.com Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-list@lojban.org X-list: lojban-list "Why does Mark feel the urge to punch a locker door when he's angry?" Is that recursive 'z' thing. Closer to the 'why does x do y for reason z' is "What causes Mark to feel an urge to punch a locker door because he's angry?" although that's not exactly what I mean and can be interpreted rather too easily as an iteration of z. This, however is exactly the reason that the concept is so hard to explain: the 'why' is too easily confused with the 'z' part of the sentence, in any explanation I try to give. The problem is is that the 'why' portion can never be a 'z': i.e. a reason for the act. -Jon ===== "I have a brain, I've just lost my mind." -Ian McLeod -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version 3.1 GSC>$ d+(++) s++:-- a-- C++ UL P L>+++ !E W+(++) N++ o? K- !w--- O- M@ V? PS+++ PE- Y+ PGP- t+ !5 X(+) R+ !tv-- b+++ DI+ D+ G e* h* r-(%) y+ ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------ __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo http://search.yahoo.com