Re: OT: Proving the rule (was Re: OT: Russian in ASCII?)

Staving Joe:
>Mark J. Reed wrote:
>
>>On Wed, Jan 07, 2004 at 02:40:22PM +0000, Joe wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Maybe it was borrowed from English.  But with 'confirm' it's just
>>>nonsense, anyway.
>>>
>>
>>Not nonsense.  The idea is that every rule has an exception, so finding
>>one doesn't constitute disproving the rule.  Logically, of course,
>>it doesn't prove the rule, either, but the expression still makes sense.
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>But it does disprove the rule.  It proves that the rule does not hold
>for all cases, and is therefore wrong.
It's a legal phrase. An exception cannot exist unless a rule does, so the
existence of the exception proves the existence of the rule.

Pete