• Harry Hindu
    4.9k
    Great questions!

    My first thought it reminds me of 'Vagueness' in LEM logic or bivalent qualities:

    This apple is red.

    Upon observation, the apple is an undetermined color between yellow and red, or it is mottled both colors. Thus the color falls into neither category " red " nor " yellow ", but these are the only categories available to us as we sort the apples. We might say it is "50% red". This could be rephrased: it is 50% true that the apple is red. Therefore, P is 50% true, and 50% false. Now consider:

    This apple is red and it is not-red.
    3017amen
    Sound like you just claimed the apple has no color at all.

    The apple has a color. It is red. If it were a different color, I'd say so.

    If words are vague then that most likely means that you havent established some context for your use of words.
  • sime
    1k
    Married and bachelor are two seperate and opposing qualities.Harry Hindu

    As far as i'm concerned, I'm a married-bachelor until the ink of the registrars signature is dry.
  • Michael
    14k
    I have a more pragmatic view of meaning (and so truth). When considering whether or not “this sentence is short” is true I count the letters. When considering whether or not “12 x 12 = 144” is true I carry out the calculation. But what can I do when considering whether or not “this sentence is false” is true? If it’s a truly (pun intended) meaningful sentence in my language I shouldn’t need a meta-language to make sense of it and determine an answer.
  • Harry Hindu
    4.9k
    As far as i'm concerned, I'm a married-bachelor until the ink of the registrars signature is dry.sime
    It seems to me that you are a bachelor until the ink dries, if the state of the ink is what determines whether you are a bachelor or married.
  • 3017amen
    3.1k


    That begs another question (viz being and becoming/the paradox of time); here's another limitation of language a priori:

    Jack is a newlywed.

    Oh really? Was Jack a newlywed in the past, present or future?
  • Harry Hindu
    4.9k
    Sentences cant assert to be true or false on their own. A sentence isnt true or false because it says so. It is true or false if it fits or doesn't fit observations, or some state-of-affairs that exists that isnt the use of the statement itself.
  • 3017amen
    3.1k


    So are you saying 'Jack is a newlywed' is a false statement?
  • Harry Hindu
    4.9k
    Jack is a newlywed.

    Oh really? Was Jack a newlywed in the past, present or future?
    3017amen

    "Is" refers to the present tense. Can Jack claim to be a newlywed a year from now? That depends on what a newlywed is. This is like asking, when do we stop saying, "Happy New Year"? When is the year no longer "new"? It seems to me that all we need to solve these problems are more specific definitions.
  • Harry Hindu
    4.9k

    Time is a measurement of change. The measurement uses change to measure change, like the change of the second hand across the face of the clock relative to the change in the location of your body across the track during a race. So, in talking about past, present, and future, we are talking about relative change. This change occurred prior to this change, while this change occurred after that change. Simultaneous change would qualify as the "present", while prior and subsequent changes would qualify as "past" and "future".

    How the guy seems to conflate "existence" with the "present" is interesting. He says that what is in the past existed but no longer does and the future will exist but doesn't yet - as if what exists qualifies as the present. Something must exist, and that is the present.
    Did exist = the past. Will exist = the future. Exists = the present.
  • trushaev
    1
    I would say this is equivocation. Replace "true contradiction" with "real contradiction". In which case your example "really is" a contradiction, but it could never express a true description of a situation because if the brother did in fact die yesterday, then you certainly didn't see him today, unless you mean to say that you saw his corpse.
  • creativesoul
    11.4k
    So contradictions and sentences without any clear reference, are meaningless.Harry Hindu

    Not what I wrote, nor does it follow from what I wrote.
  • 3017amen
    3.1k
    How the guy seems to conflate "existence" with the "present" is interesting.Harry Hindu

    Yeah, I thought it was interesting too!

    One takeaway is the question of what does existence mean (verb v. noun)? The act or condition of existing. Very circular.

    Generally speaking, I think of time as another abstract.
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