Message-Id: <199411080406.AA19514@nfs2.digex.net>
From: ucleaar <ucleaar@ucl.ac.uk>
Date: Mon Nov  7 23:06:46 1994
Subject:      Re: {lo} excellent as is
In-Reply-To:  (Your message of Mon, 07 Nov 94 10:49:03 EST.)
Status: RO
X-From-Space-Date: Mon Nov  7 23:06:46 1994
X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu

Bob:
>     .i su'o lo mlatu cu grusi
>
> is meaningless since, of course, the utterance is very likely true.
> *Everything* is likely true in an infinite universe with variable
> laws, including contradictions.  We don't know.

What matters for purposes of meaning is not whether a proposition
is true or false but the conditions under which it would be true
or false. The meaning of the above example, then, can be defined
as the set that includes every universe in which there is one
grey (?) cat, and excludes every universe in which there is
no grey cat. What universes actually do or don't exist isn't
relevant. If every possible universe exists, then for the purposes
of defining meanings, we can *pretend* that some don't.

---
And