Re: Letf / Right, was Re: Count and mass nouns

Padraic wrote:

> --- Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>
> wrote:
>
> > But the fact is that, without any natural
> > indication, it would have been quite hard to
> > define.
>
> What, left and right? Those are, like, cardinal
> directions. Much more fundamental than east or
> west.
>
> > (I wonder how the Inuits know which one is
> > their right hand ?)
>
> They probably do what everyone else in the world
> does: look down at their hands...
>
> You don't need external referents to sort out
> left and right.
>
We clever earthlings can say: face the rising sun, and North is to your left
(or, midway between your front and rear) etc.  But what of spherical or
3-sided or multi-armed creatures? What if their sun rose in the West?

And North is a convention.  Why not say, the compass needle always points
south. (I believe old maps by Islamic scholars put south at the top, no?)

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