Message-Id: <199411120423.AA27849@nfs2.digex.net>
From: Jorge Llambias <jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU>
Date: Fri Nov 11 23:23:38 1994
Subject:      Re: Outside quantifiers on masses
Status: RO
X-From-Space-Date: Fri Nov 11 23:23:38 1994
X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu

> Jorge says they are confusing, and he is right, but they are not utterly
> useless.  Although a mass has all the properties of its components, it also
> has some emergent properties, and the level of emergence may appear at
> some given level of the mass.

Does it have all the properties of each component? If I eat an apple,
am I eating the whole mass of apples? If yes, what would be the difference
between eating the whole mass and eating half the mass? The confusion came
from there. I think it is false that "the mass has all the properties
of each one of its components".

Also, is there any reason why {lei} shouldn't have a {piroi} default
quantifier, so that it is +specific?

> Consider that mass as a mass of cells.  10% of a person is a dead person,
> but 100% of that mass is alive; 90% may or may not be alive.

I don't see why 10% of a person is a dead person, and I don't understand
what the example shows, either.

Jorge