Thursday, July 27, 2006

On Infallible Logic

There's something not quite right about the following question. I wonder if I might've misconstrued vijjy's meaning?
Q:
"what is the truth in the wrold"
A: The answer you seek is multifaceted. On one hand, "the truth" is something that agrees with the factual state of the world. On the other hand hand, the factual state of the world is such that there exists a medium of communication among humankind called the "english language," in which "wrold" is not a valid word. Thus you question can be paraphrased as "What is the truth in the something that isn't the truth?" and is, in fact, a paradox. Since I'm not qualified to answer paradoxical questions, let's assign an arbitrary value to this meaningless string of symbols and say that "wrold" will signify ... um, how about "a small puddle with an offensive smell"? The answer to "What is the truth in the small puddle with an offensive smell?" is: There isn't any, because such a puddle is not a proper receptacle wherein truth may be contained.

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