[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [lojban] ce'u once again



In a message dated 4/4/2002 3:16:03 PM Central Standard Time, jcowan@reutershealth.com writes:


> In particular, a reviewer suggested to me that I can't claim a
> property applying to a specific individual is a fact, with the
> example "Fred's illness is more debilitating than George's". ,

I think the problem is that "Fred's illness" is ambiguous between
"the kind of illness Fred has" and "the particular instance of
illness that Fred has". Cancer is undoubtedly more debilitating than
diarrhea, but if Fred's cancer is in remission it may be less
debilitating than George's full-blast travelers' trots.

The "instance of" is an event, but the "kind of" is probably not
an event.


Thanks. I was trying to figure out what else was strange about {'le te bilma be fi la fred. le te bilma be fi la djordj. cu zmadu le ka ce'u bleri'a'} and it is exactly that shift from the event to the disease.
Note also that a fact has to occur, whereas an event (which application of a property to an individual clearly is) exists even if it does not occur (or, strictly, obtain).