Received: by bdragon.shore.net (0.99.970109)
  id AA09870; 09 Mar 97 04:06:07 -0500
From: crthomas@indiana.edu (Chad Ryan Thomas)
Reply-To: filk-l@bdragon.shore.net (Multiple recipients of Filk discussion)
Nntp-Posting-Host: as-118-45.ashton.indiana.edu



In article , keshlam@prodigy.com says.
>Then there's always the bleen-grue thought experiment: Define bleen
>as something that is blue until the end of the century, then turns green.
>Now try to think of a good, clear way to _use_ that distinction in
>conversation. "I don't care what color it will be in the future, it's blue
>now, isn't it?" "No, because it _will_ change, we have to call it bleen."
>(Don't ask me what this experiment was supposed to prove, outside
>of the ability of homo sap to not only plan for the future but argue
>about it.)

It was supposed to prove that our methods of induction really don't tell us 
squat about the real world.  So long as the time when a bleen object changes 
color is in the future, we can't tell if something's blue or bleen just by 
looking at it.  In fact, we can't tell if either of the colors even *exist*.

Thus, says the stuffy philosopher, we can know nothing but what logic tells 
us *must* be true.  (Aristotle would be proud, methinks.)

-- 
        ****** Chad Ryan Thomas ******** crthomas@indiana.edu *****
       / "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be\
       \          content." -- St. Paul (Phil. 4:11, KJV)          /
        ********* http://ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu/~crthomas *********


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