Re: Negation?

Ed Heil wrote:

> The concept of "not X" in its absolutely pure form, bereft of knowing
> any particular Y which implies "not X", seems to me (at least right,
> now, as I think about these things) to be something that exists only in
> the realm of language (or more properly, it is something that exists in
> our conceptual apparatus only as a result of a particular kind of
> linguistic manipulation).
How about negations of perception statements?  "I do not now see a
unicorn" can't be expressed as "Someone sees a unicorn somewhere
else" or "I saw/will see a unicorn at some other time"
(and these statements are fishy anyway, since "else" and "other"
mean "not this one" and "not now").  Yet it is a truth whose
expression may be important; expressing it by enumerating all the
other things in the visible field doesn't cut it.

--
        John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan      cowan@ccil.org
Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! / Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,
Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau / Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.
                        -- Coleridge / Politzer