John and John,
JB> The use of "the" as the declarative
indicates to me that
there is one water fountain.
<snip/>
-John Bottoms
FirstStar
Concord,
MA
T: 978-505-9878
"The" could refer to each of seventeen water fountains, one
per floor, arranged around the central utility shaft of an office building in Manhattan near the flower
shop.
I'm trying to point out that we PROJECT so much information into even simple
statements that we USUALLY make mistakes of interpretation. By generating
those interpretations, even the mistaken ones, we run a <generate and
test> algorithm on our interpretations, discourage the ones that don't work,
and encourage the ones that do. We feel bad about mistakes, good about
"correct" interpretations.
John Sowa's observations about the most
basic conversions of reality to FOL statements are what intrigue me here.
The choice of AND and Existence as the only realities should not be accepted
lightly. Before accepting it, which I will probably do after JS educates
me out of my projections, I want to understand it. To do that I wonder
why it "has" to be AND instead of OR that gets the go ahead. Existence
I can accept as basic. It’s the next choice that bothers me.
-Rich
Sincerely,
Rich Cooper
EnglishLogicKernel.com
Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com