Subject: [lojban] Re: brivla for 'intend'

From: robin <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 16:34:01 +0300

And Rosta wrote:
> Jordan:
> 
>>On Tue, Oct 15, 2002 at 08:35:16PM +0000, Jorge Llambias wrote:
>>
>>>la and cusku di'e
>>>
>>>>What is the best brivla for "x intends that p, x intends to p", given that
>>>>intention does not entail action (or deliberate inaction) and that, ba'e
>>>>ti'e,
>>>>intention is a psychological primitive (i.e. doesn't reduce to a complex of
>>>>other notions)?
>>>
>>>I tend to use {zukte fi} for lack of a better option, but it is certainly a
>>>gap
>>>in the vocabulary.
>>
>>I've been using djica for this. I think english stuff like "I
>>intended/meant to do that, but ...", is just mi pu djica ...
> 
> 
> {djica} is pretty good, but I think it makes sense to say "I wanted
> to go to Paris but I didn't intend to go", and "We intended to
> execute the prisoners because we had to execute them, even though
> we didn't want to execute the prisoners".
> 
> So there is still the gap in the vocab, even if zukte and djica can
> fill much of it.

I would view intention as a species of desire, but then I tend to view a 
lot of things like that (need, will, obligation etc.). As Harry 
Frnakurt (I think) pointed out, intention adds a level of commitment to 
a desire, so "I wanted to go to Paris but I didn't intend to go" menas 
something like "I had a desire to go to Paris, but other factors (e.g. 
the price of the plane tickets) meant that I had no plans to act on that 
desire."

The prisoners example is trickier. I would argue that with the possible 
exception of unconscious reflexes, it is impossible to do something 
without wanting to do it, but that's a controversial position. I would 
argue that the people in question have a desire to shoot the prisoners 
AND a desire not to shoot the prisoners. It's tricky because the second 
desire is the one which would take precedence under normal 
circumstances, while the first is the consequentce of another desire 
(e.g. to avoid getting shot by your commanding officer).

robin.tr

-- 
"The other major kind of computer is the "Apple", which
I do not recommend, because it is a wuss-o-rama New-Age
computer that you basically just plug in and use."
-Dave Barry

Robin Turner
IDMYO
Bilkent Üniversitesi
Ankara
Turkey

http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~robin