From cowan@xxxx.xxxx Tue Nov 2 09:06:26 1999 X-Digest-Num: 274 Message-ID: <44114.274.1535.959273825@eGroups.com> Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 12:06:26 -0500 From: John Cowan Lojbab? John? Comments? What's the "correct" definition of "pendo" - > is, acts, or both? Both. Lojban takes the "walks like a duck & quacks like a duck -> is a duck" viewpoint as much as possible. Otherwise we end up talking about someone who is behaviorally indistinguishable from a friend (does all the right things, all the time) but isn't one in some metaphysical (bad meaning) sense. Generally we only say that someone "acts like a friend" if at some later date he/she ceases to do so: "He acted like a friend, but he wasn't really one [because he betrayed me, etc.]". Lojban handles this sort of thing with its tense contours. > Hmm, this should be another thread, but what is the metaphysics of > lojban? Relativist (acts like)? Absolutist (is)? "Agnostic" (both)? Lojban mostly takes the relativist (existential) viewpoint. But the absolutist (essential) viewpoint can be induced with "ka", which reifies properties: "ko'a ckaji le ka pendo" means "he has the property of being a friend". -- John Cowan http://www.reutershealth.com jcowan@reutershealth.com Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies / Schliess eurer Aug vor heiliger Schau Den er genoss vom Honig-Tau / Und trank die Milch vom Paradies. -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)