Re: Fuzzy Logic (Was Tarsky)

Damien Broderick (damien@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au)
Tue, 26 May 1998 12:24:13 +0000


At 03:09 PM 5/25/98 -0700, Leonardo Gonzalez <lion@MIT.edu> wrote:

>Multivalent logic untangles us from self-reference paradox. What about a
>barber who shaves everyone iff they don't shave themselves? Bivalent logic
>cannot tell us whether or not the barber shaves himself. Multivalent logic
>can resolve the conflict by having the barber shave himself to a certain
>degree.

You miss the point of Russell's Paradox. The barber must not shave himself
to *any least* degree, and yet, as a man of the region, is obliged by law
to be shaved - and nobody else is permitted to shave him (the iff). The
paradox arises in the self-reference loop from the whole sentence back to a
part of the sentence. Fuzzy doesn't apply.

>Believe it or not, there ARE times when one is neither completely right,
>nor completely wrong.

This was not one of them. You were completely wrong. :)

Damien Broderick