From jcowan@reutershealth.com Fri Mar 3 09:01:48 2000 X-Digest-Num: 382 Message-ID: <44114.382.2164.959273826@eGroups.com> Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2000 12:01:48 -0500 From: John Cowan Subject: Re: final clubs X-Yahoo-Message-Num: 2164 And Rosta wrote: > Is the definition not inherently circular? The only way you'd know what > was a Final Club would be by listing all Final Clubs, at least given the > 'definition' you give. No, it is possible to identify the final clubs, although some configurations of clubs and rules create indeterminate results, as Jorge has pointed out. > Or is the definition more like this: "a club such that membership in it > precludes membership in any (every) other club that precludes membership in > any (some) other club"? A club such that membership in it precludes membership in every other club that precludes membership in every other club that precludes .... etc. etc. But the circularity is not vicious, any more than it is vicious to talk of "the most nearly typical Yale student" (call him Sam), defined by averaging the various properties of all Yale students, *including Sam*, and then identifying Sam by matching all Yale students to the average: Sam is the best fit. > At any rate, the problem is in understand what counts as a final club. Yes. > One you do that, then defining it in Lojban is trivial. Or so we hope. -- Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies! || John Cowan Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau, || http://www.reutershealth.com Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau, || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan Und trank die Milch vom Paradies. -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)