Re: CHAT: Religion, Philosophy & Politics

Patrick Dunn wrote:

> Darwin never used the phrase "survival of the fittest."
True; it was Wallace and Spencer who did.

> "Fittest" implies
> a standard, an ideal, of fittness.  The truth is, there is none.
ObLogLang: "Fit", like "large", may not meet scientific standards of
precision (just how large does something have to be to count as "large",
anyway?).  But "larger" (of two) and "largest" (of three or more,
pace Commonwealth folks) are well-defined even though "large" isn't.
Trait A is "fitter" than trait B if it leads to a greater potential
reproductive success ("potential" because an individual bearer of
trait A may not end up reproducing after all).

For this reason, Loglan does not have "red" as a primitive term, but
only "redder than".  Lojban undid this decision by providing a general
mechanism for attaching "in system X" and "by standard Y" to any
predicate claim whatsoever, so that "G is red" is sensible under the
interpretation that the standard of redness is implicit between the
speaker and the listener; if it is not implicit, it can be made
explicit.

--

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