Return-Path: Resent-From: cbmvax!uunet!PICA.ARMY.MIL!protin Resent-Message-Id: <9107192030.AA16803@relay1.UU.NET> Date: Mon, 10 Sep 90 10:58:29 EDT From: "Arthur W. Protin Jr." (GC-ACCURATE) To: John Cowan Cc: "Arthur W. Protin Jr." Subject: Re: Metaphysical assumptions Message-Id: <9009101058.aa09122@COR4.PICA.ARMY.MIL> Resent-Date: Fri, 19 Jul 91 16:24:20 EDT Resent-To: John Cowan Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Fri Jul 19 16:34:33 1991 X-From-Space-Address: cbmvax!uunet!PICA.ARMY.MIL!protin John, Perhaps the term "metaphysical assumption" is a misnomer. And from your explaination of what you use it for it should be at least hyphenated if not completely compounded. Without arguing about whether the concept is meta-physical or meta-linguistic, it seems strange that the assumption is not on the part of the speaker or listener but on the language designer. If the tense or observational status is not made explicit by the speaker then the listener will have to make assumptions about it, but our language "minizes metaphysical assumptions" by maximally allowing the speaker to require assumptions on the part of the listener. This is again beginning to sound like the very convolved garbage I found in the Metaphysics journals, with sufficiently contorted representations it becomes easier to slip invalidating operations past the gullible reader. At least you are not redefining ordinary words to have extremely specialized meanings, another mechanism by which they "prove" absurd arguments (use the word that they gave a specialized meaning in middle of the proof in violation of its specialized meaning but in accordance with its common meaning). I don't mean to suggest that you or any one else in our project has been mental deformed by involvement with the study of Metaphysics. I just enjoy a vision of a language uncorrupted by their influence, where so many of their arguments will sound as absurd to everyone as they do to me. Imagine a "runner" that doesn't every run and the problems they will have trying to explain what makes he/she/it a "runner". Thank you for the reassuring explanation, and for indulging my outbursts. Arthur Protin These are my personal views and do not reflect those of my boss or this installation.