--- Jerry Monaco <monacojerry at gmail.com> wrote:
"But where I disagree with Ravi here is thusly. The human mind and logical systems or systems of calculus as well as the world "out there" are all part 0f "reality"."
Instead of saying contradictions are in the mind, or in the physical world, why not say contradictions arise in human attempts to interpret or control natural processes? A river will meander wherever the laws of physics allow it to, without contradiction, but human attempts to direct a river's course often fail. Human attempts to plunder the planet will fail too, eventually. BobW
> On Nov 30, 2007 2:10 PM, Carrol Cox
> <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > ravi wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > I am not sure what Woj intended, but I choose to
> read him as saying
> > > something like this (which I might say):
> contradiction is a property
> > > (or state) of logical systems. Logical systems
> are tools of the human
> > > mind.
> >
> > This is so -- but it is still unacceptable as a
> comment on language. It
> > is as silly as though someone were to critique the
> phrase "silly putty"
> > on the grounds that silly was a state of mind. It
> is a naive concept of
> > words as having a mystical one-and-only meaning,
> which is linguistically
> > stupid. All words have many meanings, and you
> don't fight definitions,
> > you just note which sense of the word is relevant
> to a given context.
> >
> > Carrol
>
>
> Which was the point of Ravi using the phrase
> "logical system". Because
> in a Fregean logical system definitions are
> determined and each symbol has
> one-and-only-one meaning. Contradiction per-se is a
> "problem" of "logical
> systems" and not a problem of "natural systems"
> (scare quotes on logical and
> natural for obvious reasons .... words have many
> meanings.) Logical
> systems are refined properties of human minds, that
> limit thought to within
> a non-experiential system of calculus. Within any
> system of calculus
> "contradiction" is an important concept and tool.
>
> But where I disagree with Ravi here is thusly. The
> human mind and logical
> systems or systems of calculus as well as the world
> "out there" are all part
> of "reality". They are different aspects of
> reality. So if we can find
> contradictions in logical systems or can use them as
> tools for the human
> mind, there is no reason to exclude such
> "contradictions" from "reality".
>
> This has little to do with Woj's original reply but
> much to do with Ravi's
> reinterpretation of that reply.
>
> Jerry
>
>
>
> >
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