Re: truthvalues (was Re: ni, jei, perfectionism)

[And Rosta <a.rosta@UCLAN.AC.UK>]

Bob:
>    > The truth value of a preoposition is a number, yes.  But it ...
>    > does not have the properties of the common mathematical number
>    > sets ...  It is not transitive, ...
>
>    Being a bit nitpicky:
>
>    The truth value isn't a number. If it was, then you could do all
>    that mathsy stuff with it.
>
> Yet more nitpickyness: the mathematician who taught me analysis
> considered a value on a scale to be a number.  A matter of definition.
> A number on scale is one kind of number; there are other kinds, too,
> like integers or reals.
>
> And there are different kinds of scale -- we discussed this last
> year.  Look up `certainty factor' for an example of another type
> number on a scale that behaves differently than a truth value.

I don't want to start a long thread on this, especially because
since I wrote the above I have had doubts about it, but I do think
your mathematician is stretching things a bit. Consider the scale
of hue. If green is value on that scale, it would follow that
green is a number. Maybe green really is a number for your
maths teacher, but not according to the folk definition of
number in my mind.

--And