On Aug 6, 2011, at 10:02 PM, John F. Sowa wrote:
> ...
> 2. A statement is analytically true iff its truth follows from
> the meaning of the terms in it.
>
> Ex: "Everything red is colored."
> "If a cat is on a mat, then an animal is on something."
> "If Benedict is a bachelor, then Benedict is unmarried."
>
> Many people are trying to use ontology to define the background
> knowledge that would be sufficient to determine the analytically
> true statements about the terms in their domain of interest.
>
> However, many people (not just Quine) have observed that there
> are many problematical issues. For example, Pope Benedict is
> unmarried, but most people would not call him a bachelor. (01)
Seems to me that that example only shows that there is more to the definition
of *bachelor* than "unmarried man" -- perhaps something like "unmarried man who
is not prevented from marrying by civil or religious law". It doesn't show
that there is anything "problematic" about the notion of analyticity. (02)
-chris (03)
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