Re: `at least one ' vrs `one or more'

[bob@MEGALITH.RATTLESNAKE.COM]

Just so no one gets distracted:  I am not talking about a situation in
which necessity forces `one or more' to mean `all'.

Clearly, if I say:

    .i naku zo'u mi viska lo mlatu
    It is false that I see one or more cats

that means

    I do not see any cats

since if you cannot see even one, you cannot see all cats.

But the question is about a different kind of word:
{nelci}, fond of/likes.

The question is whether the following statement
prevents me from also liking at least one cat?

    .i naku zo'u mi nelci lo mlatu
    It is false that I like some number, at least one,
    but perhaps more, of all real cats

Does falseness regarding my liking of one or more cats apply globally
to all cats?  Or does the utterance make a more limited claim
that it is false that I like some number of cats, that number being
one or more?

In my use of English, it makes the more limited claim.  And it looks
to me that it does in Lojban, too.

Now, I am sure someone is going to question my introduction of the
phrase `some number'.  But does not the definitional expression (from
Chapter 6.7) say:

    at least one of all of those which really are

and does this not mean `some number, at least one, but perhaps
more...', leaving, however, the number unspecified?


Suppose we have a universe of five cats and I like three of them.

In this context, it is true that

    1. I like some number, at least one of all real cats, but perhaps
       more (in this case, three, but we are not specifying that).

It is *also* true that

    2. It is false that I like some number, at least one of all real
       cats, but perhaps more (in this case, two, but we are not
       specifying that).

But this double truth cannot apply when you use a word such as `see'
since the statement that:

    It is false that I can see some number, at least one,
    but perhaps more

necessarily means

    I cannot see any.

--

    Robert J. Chassell               bob@rattlesnake.com
    25 Rattlesnake Mountain Road     bob@ai.mit.edu
    Stockbridge, MA 01262-0693 USA   (413) 298-4725