Re: final clubs

[John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com>]

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.

-- 

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Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau, || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
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