Cf: Sign Relations • Discussion 6
At:
http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2020/06/22/sign-relations-%e2%80%a2-discussion-6/
Re: Ontolog Forum
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/ontolog-forum/cpgB6B6UjRs/overview
Re: Alex Shkotin
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/ontolog-forum/cpgB6B6UjRs/kpi3Zf7uBQAJ
Dear Alex,
We all love natural languages, our native tongues, but each one has a mind of its own and a habit of saying both more
and less and something other than the meanings we intend at the moment of utterance. So maybe it's a love-hate
relationship, or at least a Liebeskampf.
Whether we are endowed with an inborn faculty for language, even a genetic blueprint for selected species of languages
on a par with our naturally evolved motor and sense organs, or whether we acquire our initial languages from scratch,
every natural language worth its salt preserves a rich heritage of biological and cultural meanings its users will
assimilate, consciously or otherwise. I would not say “resistance is futile” but habits of thought built into our first
and second natures demand persistent habits of critical reflection to break.
We do use natural language paraphrases to “express the meaning of [a logical formula] using different words, especially
to achieve greater clarity” and up to a point they serve that end. But there's a catch. If a natural language
paraphrase could express the precise meaning of a logical formula with greater clarity, what would be the use of the
formula?
Well, that's the beginning of a post I started on the spectrum of formality from form to formal object to formula to
paraphrase. But I decided to let it simmer for another day. Now that we have a workbench stocked with concrete
examples of triadic relations and sign relations we might as well use them to illustrate the abstractions while keeping
our feet on more solid ground.
I'll turn to that task next.
Regards,
Jon
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