A Fuzzy Ship from Theseus

["Dylan P. Thurston" <dpt@abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>]

la and. cusku di'e
 > >I suspected that, but was unsure. If truth is gradient, then is false
 > >a truth value of 0, and true a value of more than 0?
 > >I wonder whether {lo jei carmi gusni} is different from {lo ni carmi gusni}.

As I understand it, absolutely false has a truth value of 0 and
absolutely true has a truth value of 1; a statment like

        la'edi'e cu fatci

has its own truth value (which would be just the truth value of the
statement referred to).

 > >Perhaps there is an upper limit on {lo jei c g} (e.g. a value of 1),
 > >but no upper limit on {lo ni carmi gusni} (allowing for infinite
 brightness).
 > >What do you reckon?

I'm suspicious of making {lo jei broda} a number at all.  People don't
tend to quantify things precisely, so assigning a number makes me wary.
And there's a lot more going on in natlang semantics; for instance, the
truth of a statement is usually relative to some context.  Quite
possibly the set of contexts that makes a statement true is enough to
determine the "fuzziness".

But I've thought very little about all this.  I just don't thing _this_
is where fuzzy logic should appear.

la stiv,n. cusku di'e
 > ...
 > Consider the (frequently cited) example of birds. Here is my (arbitrary)
 > list of things from most birdlike to least:
 >
 > Eagle, Pigeon, Penguin, Ostrich, Bat, Flying Squirrel, Jack Rabbit.
 >
 > Your ordering would probably be different, of course.

Umm.. Yes.  Why is a pigeon less of a bird than an eagle?

 > ...
 > In Rober Nozick's book, Philosophical Explanations, he describes the old
 > puzzle of the ship of Theseus. The ship starts out from the port of Theseus
 > on a lengthy voyage. During the voyage, the entire structure of the ship is
 > replaced, one plank at a time. When the ship returns to its home port, is
 > it the same ship?

I'd quibble and say yes; I'm the same person I was 5 years ago, even
though all the atoms in my body may have changed since then.[1] It's the
form, not the materials, that determines identity.  But this example
could easily be changed to one that I wouldn't quibble with.  (e.g.,
gradually change the shape until it becomes a house.)

[1] Not entirely true, but the extent to which it's not true is mainly
determined by my experiences since then, not the change in materials.

 > ...
 > If there is no clear meaning for ni, perhaps implementing a rich syntax for
 > describing fuzzy sets with ni would be amusing and/or useful. Perhaps the
 > capability exists but is simply unrecognized.
 >
 > Da is in the 3rd of 7 overlapping fuzzy sets along the Thesean scale.
 > Da lo ni ci paze botcu ra'i lo Teseus

This syntax is definitely out:  {cipaze} is 317.  "3rd of the seven
brodas" is {cimoi le ze broda}, but I'm not sure how that fits in here.

 > Steven M. Belknap, M.D.
 > Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Medicine
 > University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria

Wow.  For a doctor, you sure sound like a mathematician.

mu'o mi'e. dilyn.