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From: weltyc@cs.rpi.edu (Christopher A. Welty)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.lang
Subject: Re: Fun with the semantics of paradox
Message-ID: <429@rpi.edu>
Date: 30 Jan 89 22:32:39 GMT
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In article <19625@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> sp299-ad@violet.berkeley.edu (Celso Alvarez) writes:
> [...] since the statement
>
>	"The current king of France" 
>
>(uttered while pointing at a portrait or photograph) is false in itself,
>why claim that the whole sentence is "meaningless"? 

You are adding here a context to the statement, implying that the more
formal meaning of the statement is `This is the current king of
France'.  But that, I would claim, is a COMPLETELY different statement
than just "The current king of France", because this statement is NOT
false.  It is based upon the presupposition (which, as you point out,
is the correct term) that there IS a current king of France.  But the
statement itself DOES NOT make this claim.  I claim that the
understanding of this statement requires a notion beyond that of truth
or falsehood.


Christopher Welty  ---  Asst. Director, RPI CS Labs
weltyc@cs.rpi.edu             ...!njin!nyser!weltyc