Re: etc. = mass, apparently Addendum

[John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>]

pycyn@aol.com scripsit:

> I assume the ethnic slur about Scots has to do with the actually Italian 
> custom of making (and selling!) cigars made out of the butts of other cigars. 

Actually, I don't really know.

> The answer has to be indefinite,

The canonical answer is "Any given number", which is pretty indefinite, indeed.

> As for gavagai, until we decide how little is needed to classify as gavagai, 
> we still have to go with indefinites, but I assume that anywhere from 1 (all 
> four rabbits clearly qualify as a single manifestation in Malinowski's 
> description of Trobrianders) [...]

I think two things are getting merged here: the Trobriander's Mr. Rabbit,
and Quine's gavagai, which is defined as "sundry [logically] detached
rabbit parts." These two concepts may have had a common origin, but
are now distinct.

-- 
John Cowan cowan@ccil.org
I am a member of a civilization. --David Brin