Subject: Re: [lojban] A or B, depending on C, and related issues

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 17:12:41 EDT

In a message dated 8/10/2001 11:56:43 AM Central Daylight Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> I think it means that "Q or R depending on P"
> is not well represented by a three way logical connective.
> 

I think the ones I gave are not too bad actually, but that is a prejudice 
left over from years of teaching logic, where things like this seem always to 
work.

<It has to do in that forms like "Whether A happens depends
on whether B happens", or "what x does depends on what y
does", etc, involve these so called "indirect question" forms.>

It is just the issue of whether this formal similarity represents any real 
similarity that I am concerned about. I am less sceptical than I was a while 
ago, but still far from convinced that these are all "the same thing." In 
the case of "know," what seems to be involved is a correct answer to the 
question, in the case of "wonder" a range of possible answers, in "What's for 
dinner depends on what's in the fridge" there seem to be answers to two 
questions and the correlations between them, in "The magic formula changed 
how tall I am" what is involved is just my height, not the answer to any 
question but the topic of it. and other examples bring up other things, 
which can be related to questions -- as can anything -- but don't seem to be 
interestingly so related in ways that match other cases. And in almost none 
of these does it stand for The Right Answer (even with "know").

So, I think we need cases and deal with them as they come along and then look 
back and see whether there is a thread that runs through at least some of 
these cases and that leads to a simplification or a unification of the cases.

<What I wear depends on (results from) where I go.> 
Surely this includes (in some not very clear sense) "If I go to a formal 
party, I will wear a tux" and "If I go camping, I will wear rough clothing" 
and "If I go to a nudist beach, I will wear damn-all" Each first part is an 
"answer" to the "question" "Where go I?" and each second to the question 
"What wear I?" and the "if then"s show appropriate dependencies -- with 
probably lots more cases to consider. as you have pointed out, the "indirect 
question" parts just cover the case without giving the details, as does "my 
apparel varies with my destination." I would say exactly the same way, in 
fact, which leaves the question of what all this has to do with questions. 
the most I see is that most of them seem to be pulling out of a bag that 
might be called "answers," but the pulling is in so many different ways that 
it is hard to see a thread -- and there remain cases that don't seem to 
involve "answers" at all.