From olivera@macs.biu.ac.il Sat Nov 09 17:40:08 2002
Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Sat, 09 Nov 2002 17:40:08 -0800 (PST)
Received: from outmail.cc.huji.ac.il ([132.64.1.18] helo=mail2.cc.huji.ac.il)
	by digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.05)
	id 18Ah4y-0000pw-00
	for lojban-list@lojban.org; Sat, 09 Nov 2002 17:40:00 -0800
Received: from 127.0.0.1 (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1])
	by mail2.cc.huji.ac.il (Postfix) with SMTP
	id 107833FF90; Sun, 10 Nov 2002 03:39:57 +0200 (IST)
Received: from cc.huji.ac.il (cc.huji.ac.il [132.64.1.5])
	by mail2.cc.huji.ac.il (Postfix) with ESMTP id DC9F23FE1C
	for <lojban-list@lojban.org>; Sun, 10 Nov 2002 03:39:56 +0200 (IST)
Received: from avitallap (di8-33.dialin.huji.ac.il [132.64.10.33])
	by cc.huji.ac.il (Postfix) with SMTP id E564A48F1
	for <lojban-list@lojban.org>; Sun, 10 Nov 2002 03:39:50 +0200 (IST)
Message-ID: <004101c287cb$8c9c7590$0300a8c0@avitallap>
From: "Avital Oliver" <olivera@macs.biu.ac.il>
To: <lojban-list@lojban.org>
References: <200211091741.MAA13211@mail2.reutershealth.com>
Subject: [lojban] Re: partial recantation in favour of solomonics
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 03:39:41 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1255"
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000
X-archive-position: 2572
X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0
Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org
Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org
X-original-sender: olivera@macs.biu.ac.il
Precedence: bulk
Reply-to: lojban-list@lojban.org
X-list: lojban-list


From: "John Cowan" <jcowan@reutershealth.com>


> And Rosta scripsit:
>
> > But actually I think you and me and xod agree. Provided we indicate
> > the world where unicorns exist, everybody's happy.
>
> Indeed.  But xod rejected that strategy, saying he preferred to remain
> in the real world.  And in the real world, "50% of unicorns are male"
> has indeterminate truth value.

I don't see why this is your view. Let A be the number of unicorns. Let B be
the number of male unicorns. You seem to understand the sentence "50% of
unicorns are male" as "B/A = 50%" (obviously this is incorrect. B/A is
undefined). I, on the other hand, understand the sentence as "B * 50% = A",
which is true. This allows speaking of 50% of unicorns and yet staying
mathematically consistent.

Avital.