Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id XAA09184 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 27 Mar 2001 23:52:06 +0100 From: <joedees@bellsouth.net> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 16:54:59 -0600 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Bi-and Tri- and Quatr- and Quintifurcation Message-ID: <3AC0C5E3.15469.1E73CB@localhost> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12c) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
False and fact? That leaves out a category.
If assertions, contentions, statements, truth-claims,propositions,
etc. are fundamentally relative to a referent, that is, they have a
quality of 'aboutness' to them, 'false' and 'fact' is reasonable (with
the caveat that scientific truth is by theoretical necessity
provisional). But the caveat itself introduces us to the existent of
two kinds of truth, provisional truths such as those proffered by
science, and apodictic truths, such as tautologies and
phenomenologically primordial awarenesses (I think, I feel, I
perceive), which are nonprovisional. However, the world and
language are not so that either statements represent or
misrepresent a testable or undeniable referent. Sometimes,
meaningful statements can be linked to no empirically testable
referent whatsoever, but to a referent that is by its very nature
empirically untestable, in which case a fourth category appears;
true, false and untestable (metaphysical claims fall here, such as
the claim that all things are caused, or that some are not, or that
the universe is finite or infinite in extension/duration, or that a
metaphysical deity or deities do or do not exist - such claims may
not be known to be true or false, only believed-in or disbelieved-in),
and sometimes a prospective statement is so garbled and/or self-
contradictory that it can be made to refer to no referent, empirical
or otherwise - thus the fifth category, meaningless.
Now we have:
1) Provisional truths
2) Apodictically certain (self-evident) truths
2) Falsehoods
4) Untestable assertions (beliefs)
5) Meaningless assertions (pseudoassertions)
Any others?
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