WikiDiscuss

Posted by pycyn on Fri 14 of Jan, 2005 01:30 GMT posts: 2388

> John E Clifford wrote:
>
> >--- Jorge Llambías
> <jjllambias2000@yahoo.com.ar>
> >wrote:
> >
> >
>
> >>I hope I never claimed such a thing about the
> >>universe!
> >>But also not even about the universe of
> >>discourse. All I
> >>said was that if you mention it, then it is
> in
> >>the
> >>universe of discourse, not that if you don't
> >>mention it
> >>then it is not.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >You actually said that mentioning it the first
> >time *introduced* it into the universe of
> >discourse, whence I infer it was not there
> >before. You may have *meant* something like
> "if
> >I mention it then it is in the u/d even if not
> >previously obvious that it was" or some such,
> but
> >it is hard to take your words in that sense.
> >
> >
>
> The only 'difference' between the two
> interpretations is the difference
> between the item being newly introduced into
> the universe of discourse
> at its first mention, and the item always
> having been in the universe of
> discourse. But the interval in dispute starts
> at the beginning of the
> discussion and ends at the item's first
> mention. Since the item is never
> mentioned in the interval, this 'difference' is
> meaningless.

Not in the "Nothing" / "Air units" (they aren't
molecules, after all) case — see the earlier
discussion. I take it that xorxes meant things in
a more usual sense and calls assigning as a
reference "introduction" or something very like
that.