On Jul 17, 2007, at 8:50 AM, Kathryn Blackmond Laskey wrote: (01)
> At 5:44 PM -0500 7/16/07, Pat Hayes wrote:
>> On Jul 16, 2007, at 5:20 PM, Gary Berg-Cross wrote:
>>
>>> Pat, Barry
>>>
>>> Most authors who write biology text books don't know about, or
>>> aren't thinking about Taskian models.
>>
>> They may not know about them, but they can still be thinking about
>> them. Just as someone who knows nothing of botany can think about
>> plants.
>
> I don't think it's correct to say they "really are" thinking about
> Tarskian models even if they don't know about them. However, it is
> the case that their thought processes are logically consistent to the
> degree that they could be formalized as Tarskian models of a set of
> axioms. (02)
Those seem exactly the same to me. Suppose I know nothing about set
theory, and am thinking about six pennies on a table in front of me
(say, trying to solve a puzzle). Is it correct to say that I am
thinking about members of a set containing six pennies? IMO, yes, it
is. Because the members of the set are the pennies, and I am thinking
about those pennies. (03)
Now, suppose I am a scientist thinking about some scientific topic,
and putting my thoughts into reasonably exact words. I might be
thinking about, say, the energy levels of a photon being emitted from
an organic molecule which I have synthesized. If my thoughts/
assertions are veridical, then they relate to the reality they
describe in a certain way. That relationship is what Tarskian truth
theory describes. So if my thoughts are veridical, then they relate
to some reality in a Tarskian way: in other words, that (piece of )
reality is a Tarskian model of my thoughts/assertions. That is all I
meant. Now, this does not mean that I am thinking about Tarskian
theory or even need to have heard of Tarskian theory, any more than
in the first example I need to know set theory to think about coins.
Nevertheless, the objects of my thought in the first case are the
elements of a set, and in the second case are a Tarskian model of my
thoughts. (04)
Pat (05)
>
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> (06)
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