Subject: Re: [lojban] Set of answers encore

From: John Cowan <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 12:28:03 -0400

[email-masked] wrote:

> Well, ideally, ask him "Is Bill the cube root of 389017 years old?" I 
> would count "Say what?" or "I have no idea what the cube root of 
> whatever you said is" and so on as effective "no"s , indicating that 
> such was not his belief.

In _Quiddities_,
Quine says that people believe what they are willing to bet money on,
so as to be able to reasonably distinguish belief from mere lip service
-- although even he concedes that "I know that my Redeemer liveth" is
not a good candidate for this kind of belief-test. It would seem that
he agrees with me that "belief" is a prototype-based category, although
he counts that bad, whereas I reckon it good.

-- 
Not to perambulate || John Cowan <[email-masked]>
the corridors || http://www.reutershealth.com
during the hours of repose || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
in the boots of ascension. \\ Sign in Austrian ski-resort hotel