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you could say This two-legged, speaking, featherless creature does not have two legs. But this would be saying that an x which is truly two-legged is truly one-legged. |
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CSP: That would be very silly, I agree. That is why I never use the word True. It is an ambiguous word that undergoes at least three different interpretations. In E.15, the information that Antipodeans (as a natural kind) have two hands is scored $$. On the contrary, the information that Miguel de Cervantes lost a hand is scored ££. |
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Smith: You distinguish then between analytic and synthetic or factual truths. |
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CSP: I am afraid we are saying something different. You are probably saying that (i) Elephants are animals is true by definition (it would be embarrassing to say that an x is an elephant without being an animal) while (ii) Elephants are grey is only a stereotype since it is not contradictory to assert that there are white elephants. But what about (iii) Elephants helped Hannibal to defeat the Romans? |
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Smith: That is a matter of world knowledge. It is an individual fact. It has nothing to do with definition. |
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CSP: Is there a great difference between the fact that a thousand elephants helped Hannibal and that a million elephants are grey? |
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Smith: In fact, I would like to take both truths as pieces of world knowledge, except that (ii) has been accepted as a stereotype, for the sake of convenience. |
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CSP: The organization of my encyclopedias is different. In order to understand every possible sentence about elephants, I must know that they are animals, that most of them are grey, and that they can be used for military purposes (and they can be so used since they were used this way at least once). My encyclopedia E.15 records all these three types of information as $$. However, they are also recorded as ££ because Antipodeans agree in maintaining that (i), (ii), and (iii) describe what is or was the case in the external world. On the contrary, my information (iv), namely, that Dumbo is a flying elephant, is recorded as non-££. I need this record because many children talk about Dumbo, and I have to understand what they say. In E.15, I have a pointer to Disney.1, which is another encyclopedia where (iv) is both $$ and ££. Frequently, Antipodeans use E.15 as if it says that Dumbo is a flying elephant $$ and non-££. |
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Smith: Thus you know that, in the actual world of the Antipodeans's physical experience, it is false that Dumbo is a flying elephant or that it is true that Dumbo does not exist. |
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CSP: In E.15, (iv) is recorded as non-££. |
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