Re: Negation?

On Thu, 8 Jul 1999, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Ed Heil wrote:
> > But I'm not sure how you could know *nothing but* the fact that it *did
> > not rain* by any means other than being told so in words.
>
> Well, perhaps that was a bad example, but one way would be as you said,
> by observing that the ground is dry, or perhaps you had left a
> wheelbarrow out, and, if it had rained, there would be water in the
> wheelbarrow, or perhaps you saw that the precipitation the previous day
> was 0.00 inches.
Hehehe!  Answered your own question!

"It didn't rain yesterday."  "There was no water in the wheelbarrow.  The
precipitation meter remained dry."

--Patrick