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

From:Peter Bleackley <peter.bleackley@...>
Date:Wednesday, January 7, 2004, 15:43
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