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From: diana@coracle.cis.ohio-state.edu (Diana Smetters)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Fun with the semantics of paradox
Keywords: Aristotelian Logic, Law of the Excluded Middle
Message-ID: <32698@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 26 Jan 89 19:51:44 GMT
References: <479@aipna.ed.ac.uk> <3038@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <43843@linus.UUCP>
Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Reply-To: Diana Smetters <diana@cis.ohio-state.edu>
Organization: Ohio State University Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence Research
Lines: 23

In article <43843@linus.UUCP> bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry Kort) writes:
< Let's play with the assertion,
< 
< 	"The current king of France is bald."
< 
< If we put this into symbolic logic notation, we get
< 
< 	For all x, if x is the current king of France, then x is bald.
< 

I think that some of the controversy may stem from the alternate translation,
where:
	"The current king of France is bald."

is rendered into logic as:

 "There exists an x, such that x is the current king of France and x is bald."

due to a different theoretical analysis of definite descriptions. This
statement is false, without causing any problems with the law of the
excluded middle. 

--Diana Smetters