Re: Mr. Bird has 2 wings (was: essentials of a gadri system)

Jorge Llamb��)B�as scripsit:

> Mr. Bird is indeed sometimes a parrot, sometimes an eagle, sometimes...

Well, it's true that if I have seen a parrot (say, Paulie), I have seen
Mr. Bird. But it does not follow that if I have seen Thorondor (and
a fortiori Mr. Bird), I have seen an entity that is sometimes a parrot.
Thorondor is always an eagle.

Similarly, some birds are carnivorous, including Thorondor, but Mr. Bird
is not carnivorous. If he were, then it would be fair to say that when
I have seen Paulie, I have seen Mr. Carnivore: but I have not.

> In very restricted contexts he may be Paulie. Just as John Cowan in
> some very restricted context may be "a person sitting in his chair and
> drinking a cup of tea" even though in most contexts he is not that.

For the record, this John Cowan (but see http://www.ccil.org/~cowan/notme.html)
doesn't drink tea, or any other similar beverage.

(I am, of course, utterly disregarding the fictionality of both Paulie and
Thorondor, and treating them as names for an actually existing parrot and
eagle respectively.)

-- 
Eric Raymond is the Margaret Mead John Cowan
of the Open Source movement. jcowan-k6JZYsoqQQ8PxK1qzZLvrwC/[email protected]
--Lloyd A. Conway, http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
amazon.com review http://www.reutershealth.com