Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!serene!pnet12!fsjl
From: fsjl@pnet12.cts.com (Fragano Ledgister)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Fun with the semantics of paradox
Message-ID: <337@serene.UUCP>
Date: 24 Jan 89 06:36:08 GMT
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Organization: People-Net [pnet12], Del Mar, CA
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lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) writes:
>From article <479@aipna.ed.ac.uk>, by rjc@aipna.ed.ac.uk (Richard Caley):
>" ...
>" 	"The current king of France is bald."
>" 
>" ( Frege, I believe ) which is neither true nor false, since there is no
>" king of France currently.
>
>Russell, but you're following the Strawson line.  Russell said it was
>false.  I agree with Russell.
>
>'Meaningless' is a loaded term.  There's no telling its intended
>reference until you know what theory is being pushed.  (This should
>not be taken to imply that it is different from other terms.)
>
>		Greg, lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu



Back in the days when I was an undergraduate
studying philosophy (among other things), my
teacher used this example when teaching Russell's
epistemology.

He then went on to say that when he was a graduate 
student at the Sorbonne and this phrase came up
he argued that it was true. De Gaulle, he said, was the king of France, and de
Gaulle was bald -- hence the 'present king of France'
was bald.

Since Mitterand is also bald (and since I've been hearing descrip-
tions of him as 'a de Gaulle-like figure'), perhaps
we might consider it to be true today.



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