Subject: Re: [lojban] Imaginary worlds (was su'u)

From: And Rosta <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 19:50:51 +0000

>>> John Cowan <[email-masked]> 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 
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.