[lojban] Two views of logic ?

[Escape Landsome <escaaape@gmail.com>]

Hello,

there has been some discussion recently about the question of the
meaning of AND (I used AND in a sense that was different from the pure
logical AND, meaning something akin to OOP-multiple inheritance).

Now, I'd like to draw your attention on something that bothers me :
although this is not strictly a lojban-related question, it shares
some relation with lojbanic interests.

It is the fact that natlang AND is not exactly logical AND (this is
not a new item), --- EVEN WHEN the "semantic import" of AND is a
logical one (this is more of a new item).

Let me make myself clearer with a natlang example :

when I say, "John is ill, this may be because of X, OR SOMETHING
ELSE", there is a logical import in this sentence, which is, roughly
speaking, the logical conditions by which we can tell if this sentence
is true or not...  and there is also a semantic and a pragmatic
import.

I claim that here the logical and the semantic imports are distinct.
Indeed, saying that somebody is ill "for some reason, or for some
other else", is tautologic, as it is clear that (X or something else)
maps everything in the world.

Yet, semantically (and even pragmatically), saying "X or something
else" is a good way of saying "anything, but more acutely X" (or, more
probably).

You may reply that, in this case, what is said is "anything, but more
acutely X", which is not "anything", neither a "OR-expression".   I
agree with that.   So, we need a semantic connector to say "A but more
acutely B" ?

Also, please note that "X.... or something else...." is justified in a
"cognitive-time-elapsing event" of scanning all the possible causes of
John's illness.   The speaker begins by regarding X as a cause, then
adds the modifier "or something else" as a second-order correction.
Maybe, this very way of scanning things, as a first-order assertion
corrected by a second-order one, should be kept.   Maybe the connector
"ko'a but more acutely ko'e" should render the mindflow logic of this
second-order correction ?

-- .esk

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