From arosta@uclan.ac.uk Mon Feb 12 11:51:58 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: arosta@uclan.ac.uk X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_0_3); 12 Feb 2001 19:51:41 -0000 Received: (qmail 37476 invoked from network); 12 Feb 2001 19:51:41 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by l10.egroups.com with QMQP; 12 Feb 2001 19:51:41 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO com1.uclan.ac.uk) (193.61.255.3) by mta3 with SMTP; 12 Feb 2001 20:52:46 -0000 Received: from gwise-gw1.uclan.ac.uk by com1.uclan.ac.uk with SMTP (Mailer); Mon, 12 Feb 2001 19:35:11 +0000 Received: from DI1-Message_Server by gwise-gw1.uclan.ac.uk with Novell_GroupWise; Mon, 12 Feb 2001 19:51:13 +0000 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 5.5.2 Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 19:50:51 +0000 To: cowan Cc: lojban Subject: Re: [lojban] Imaginary worlds (was su'u) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline From: And Rosta >>> John Cowan 02/11/01 01:48am >>> #> We replace one small #> piece of wood by a piece of plastic, the table is still the table, #> and we keep doing that until all the wood has been replaced #> by plastic. # #Well, perhaps it is and perhaps it isn't. But this case is not that #case. We are talking about whether "T is (and always has been) #made entirely of plastic" is a possible world (given that T is i#n fact made of wood and always has been). I think it's a self- #contradiction. Is the Statue of Liberty made of marble? Well imagine a world exactly like this one, except it was made of granite (the=20 protectix of huddled masses I mean, not the world). (Please silently correct any masonry errors.) Is it, or isn't it, the S. of L.? My (excellent) answer is that it 99% is; i.e. it satisfies 99% of criteria for SoL-hood (including having no close rivals for SoLhood), but falls down on the "made of marble" criterion. --And.