Re: [lojban] translation challenge: "If today is Monday..."

[John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>]

And Rosta scripsit:

> We can ditch the deictics, though. If they're a redherring:

Statements about singular terms always turn out to be universal, though:

> A. "If Jorge had been born in Warsaw, he'd be a British citizen"
> = false
> 
> B. "Jorge is british or not born in Warsaw"
> = true
> 
> C. we could change A to:
> "Everyone is british or not born in Warsaw"
> = false
> 
> but A and C are not equivalent, and we may be wishing to make
> a claim only about Jorge, not about everyone. 

But "Socrates is mortal" = "Everything that is a Socratizer is mortal".
So with properly chosen predicates like "is a Socratizer", we can
dispose of all singular terms in favor of universal quantifications.

-- 
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
Please leave your values        |       Check your assumptions.  In fact,
   at the front desk.           |          check your assumptions at the door.
     --sign in Paris hotel      |            --Miles Vorkosigan