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[lojban] Re: partial recantation in favour of solomonics



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.