Subject: Re: [lojban] Logical translation request

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 20:54:25 EST

In a message dated 12/12/2001 6:02:24 PM Central Standard Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> And the use of this method is what Vulcans pride themselves on,
> isn't it?
> 

Just what the Vulcan's mean by "logic" is a little unclear. It does involve 
valid (in the broad sense, since probabilistic inferences -- though with the 
probabilities stated -- are included) inferences only. But it seems also to 
involve the negative side: that emotional considerations do not intrude at 
any point: viewing the situation, setting up alternatives, or evaluating 
alternatives (the last, at least, is hard to dodge emotions on, for whence 
comes the goods and bads). So I think the antiemotionalism perhaps needs to 
get into the structure somewhere (another irony, of course, given that we are 
talking about a Terra-Vulcan marriage which involved emotionalism on one side 
and, in fact, could not have been "logical" at all, but seemed to be at the 
time because Sarek was having a carefully self-concealed attack of emotion). 
Otherwise, the logic might be perfect but the whole flawed by emotional 
distortion of the view or the evaluation or the range of options.