Subject: Re: [lojban] RE:su'u

From: "Jorge Llambias" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 19:56:59

la djan cusku di'e

>The predicate "married to Gale McGhan" non-rigidly designates me, since
>there are many possible worlds in which it isn't true. But "first son
>of Thomas Cowan and Marianne Schultz" rigidly designates me, since it
>refers to me in every possible world in which I exist at all, and where
>I don't exist it designates nobody.

Can't you conceive of a world where your parents had a son
say a year earlier than the year you were born? Would that
person have been really you?

>I could have married someone else and still been me (hard as that is to
>believe after 20+ years), but the first son of some other parents could
>*not* have been me -- that would be somebody else altogether.

The first son of your parents could have been some other person,
and I'm not sure why you would not be you if you had been
someone else's son. Probably you are right in biological
terms, but "other worlds" includes any world we can imagine
in linguistic terms, if I say "if you had been the son of
George Washington" then I am bringing forth a world where
you are the son of George Washington.

co'o mi'e xorxes

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