Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 17:09:52 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199712022209.RAA04761@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Logical Language Group Sender: Lojban list From: Logical Language Group Subject: Re: logical gaffs X-To: AshleyB@halcyon.com X-cc: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Status: RO Content-Length: 1862 Lines: 37 >>The religious do not accept that "facts >>are "assumptions" and therefore "subjective". That God is an absolute and >>exists whetehr you believe in him or not, means that His law is inhgerently >>NOT subjective. > >Quite, but the Lojban translation reveals that any objectivity of >--More-- >'murder' must rely on some absolute authority, whereas 'murder' in the >English 'abortion is murder' appears to be objective all by itself -- and >_that_ is the subterfuge. > >I'm not claiming that Lojban will help disprove the existence of an >absolute authority, only that English is susceptible to a particular kind >of error that Lojban is not. I think that people who would assume an absolute authority in the Lojban feel that same absolute authoirty is built into the English definition (and harkens back to one of the 10 commandments). Such people seem to see EVERYTHING as black and white with rgards to the same absolute authoirty. I don't think that the typical religious LOjbanist would ever fill in the x2 indicating authority, and would be utterly flabbergasted at any question as to the specific inmind value that he had if asked to fill it in. One could therefore say that English "murder" also requires an indication of authority, but that usage never includes it. The x2 place is part of the Lojban prescriotion - there is no guarantee that Lojbanists 200 years from now will still recognize it. lojbab ---- lojbab lojbab@access.digex.net Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: ftp.access.digex.net /pub/access/lojbab or see Lojban WWW Server: href="http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/" Order _The Complete Lojban Language_ - see our Web pages or ask me.