From: jqb@netcom.com (Jim Balter)
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 1996 19:39:00 GMT

In article ,
Ton Maas  wrote:
>In article ,
>CDJ  wrote:
>
>>Is it just me, or is this rather like saying that since the classical
>>logician's "and" only applies to truth-functional systems, (and natural
>>language is demonstrably not truth-functional) therefore the classical
>>logician's "and" "has no relevance to systems in the real world" ?
>
>As Gregory Bateson pointed out many years ago, the logic by which nature
>and evolution (embryology, homology, D'Arcy Thompson-patterns, etc.) abide,
>has this general structure:
>
>Men die
>Grass dies
>Men are grass
>
>which is formally called "affirming the consequent" and is rather
>disreputable among logicians. 

Gregory Bateson is not known for his mastery of either biology or logic.
Perhaps he should have to deferred to William Bateson the geneticist.


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