From jcowan@reutershealth.com Wed Mar 1 10:26:24 2000 X-Digest-Num: 380 Message-ID: <44114.380.2113.959273826@eGroups.com> Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2000 13:26:24 -0500 From: John Cowan Subject: Re: Sets etc. pycyn@aol.com wrote: > A class is [...]. A set is [...] A mass (in the Lojban > sense) is [...]. What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed. > Finally, a class may > be viewed collectively, and then the properties attributed to it have little > to do with the properties of the individual but rather with matters like how > many there are of them or (more related to their proerties) what toher > classes they belong to -- cardinality, inclusion, and the like -- set > theoretic properties, in short, which only rarely have value in ordinary > discourse. I brought up "ralju" psecisely to mention a "non-mathematical" use of classes/sets. There is no reason why there should not be a branch of set theory dealing with the "most important" members of sets, but it happens there is not. Which leads me to the following challenge, due to Quine. A student at Yale may belong to zero or more clubs. Some clubs are final clubs. A final club is defined as "a club such that membership in it precludes membership in any other final club". Express the definition of "final club" in good Lojban without circularity. -- Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies! || John Cowan Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau, || http://www.reutershealth.com Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau, || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan Und trank die Milch vom Paradies. -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)