From: Smigrodzki, Rafal (SmigrodzkiR@msx.upmc.edu)
Date: Thu May 30 2002 - 09:14:21 MDT
Lee Corbin [mailto:lcorbin@tsoft.com]
"All A's are B's, all B's are C's" definitely proves "All A's
are C's.", whatever the identities or values of A, B, and C,
as Louis pointed out. Yet the conclusion from
All young stars are made of many gaseous molecules.
All things made of many gaseous molecules obey the
laws of statistical dynamics".
somehow *does* limit the ontological possibilities! Quite
amazing, when you stop to think about it.
### It is limiting only if you have a way of mapping the (assumed to be
absolutely true) statements of logic onto the sensory reality. If you had an
absolutely true and full description of a part of reality, you might be able
to put some constraints on it by an application of logic. Yet, both of the
statements you use in your example are rife with little imperfections (How
many is many? Are they really gaseous? What does it mean to "obey" here?).
These imperfections leave enough wiggle room for the truth about reality to
escape the merciless embrace of logic.
Rafal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:14:30 MST