John Sowa wrote:
<snip/>
You answered your question in the opening statement
above.
You saw both of them going to the water
fountain. So your
normal operator is 'and'. You would only use
'or' if you
weren't sure which one went -- i.e., it was an
inference,
not an observation.
John
Woah! Why does that make it a conjunct? I see it as two
disjuncts:
1. Paul goes to the
water fountain;
2. Wanda goes to the
water fountain;
Maybe I think "have I paid the water bill?" as a deduction,
but I don't think that Paul and Wanda have anything else going, unless you know
something I don't, but these appear to be two entirely distinct acts. By
the notion of dividing the entire universe into conjunctionable parts, it seems
to me that here are two such conjunctionable parts. That makes them a disjuncts
of two conjuncts:
(goes Paul (fountain water))
(goes Wanda (fountain water))
The first, (goes Paul (fountain water)), is a conjunct of two parts -
the CAR 'goes and the CDR - 'list('Paul '(fountain water)).
The second, (goes Wanda (fountain water)), is a second, distinct
conjunct of two parts as well - the CAR 'goes and the CDR 'list('Wanda
'(fountain water)).
So there is some kind of nonjunct going on
here.
-Rich
Sincerely,
Rich Cooper
EnglishLogicKernel.com
Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com