[lojban] Re: A (rather long) discussion of {all}

[John E Clifford <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

--- Maxim Katcharov <maxim.katcharov@gmail.com>
wrote:

> 
> A complete restriction is not more useful than
> an incomplete
> restriction when context makes the referent
> overwhelmingly obvious in
> the incomplete restriction. Complete
> restrictions are useful for when
> context is vague, like in my "2 of 10 bears in
> a cage, release all
> bears in the cage" example. Another example is
> how you and I can't
> really be sure of which of the various
> interpretations of A and B's
> sentences is correct. Have a look at any
> contract 

Contracts are, alas, rather cases of one of the
sort of thing I am pointing out, namely that you
cannot actually cover all the cases by a simple
description (or a complex one for that matter). 
Consider a contract between a customer and a
dairy  for the dairy to deliver two quarts of
milk to the customer's home every Thursday.  One
Thursday a tiger escaped from a circus and was
roamin in the area of the customer's home and
attacking people.  The dairy told its deliveryman
not to deliver the customer's milk that day.  The
customer sued for breach of contract (Thursday
but no milk).  The court ruled for the defendant,
saying that contract did not have to say "except
on tiger days" for this to be an exception; tiger
days just don't count as Thursdays for this
contract.  The ruling was affirmed on appeal. 
Here is as unambiguous a description as possible
and yet it too is relative to some interests,
which interests  may not be dealt with beforehand.


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