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<DIV>Dear LinguistList aficionados,</DIV>
<DIV>arn’t we going to astray from the original question raised by Frans? As he
says in his last message, “Calm down everybody”! We are talking about
Truth (or truth ?), pragmatism, science(s), theology etc. -and lesser about
linguistics. But may be du Marsais was right in stating “...il seroit à
souhaiter que ceux qui enseignent la grammaire fussent philosophes. Les
grammairiens qui ne sont pas philosophes ne sont <FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT color=#1a1a1a>pas <SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS ??"; mso-ansi-language: it; mso-fareast-language: ar-sa; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa'>même
<FONT face=Calibri>grammairiens”, Chesnau du Marsais, <EM>Les véritables
principes de la grammaire, ou Nouvelle Grammaire raisonnée pour apprendre la
langue latine,</EM> Oeuvres I, Paris 1797,
206.</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT color=#1a1a1a face=Calibri><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS ??"; mso-ansi-language: it; mso-fareast-language: ar-sa; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa'></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT color=#1a1a1a face=Calibri><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS ??"; mso-ansi-language: it; mso-fareast-language: ar-sa; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa'>Best,</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT color=#1a1a1a face=Calibri><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS ??"; mso-ansi-language: it; mso-fareast-language: ar-sa; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa'>Paolo</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT color=#1a1a1a face=Calibri><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS ??"; mso-ansi-language: it; mso-fareast-language: ar-sa; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa'></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT color=#1a1a1a face=Calibri><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS ??"; mso-ansi-language: it; mso-fareast-language: ar-sa; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa'>°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000">Prof.Paolo
Ramat<BR>Università di Pavia<BR>Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori (IUSS
Pavia)<BR></DIV>
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<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=ptsgmartins@GMAIL.COM
href="mailto:ptsgmartins@GMAIL.COM">Pedro Tiago Martins</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, March 11, 2014 5:56 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=LINGTYP@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
href="mailto:LINGTYP@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG">LINGTYP@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: Re truth in science</DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV class=gmail_default
style="FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica,sans-serif">The question
whether scientific theories are true is a classic in philosophy of science. A
good way to start is to read about Laudan's pessimistic induction argument
(Laudan 1981), read the critiques and support it received, and pick a
side!</DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_default
style="FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_default
style="FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Pedro</DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_extra>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 5:43 PM, Everett, Daniel <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:DEVERETT@bentley.edu"
target=_blank>DEVERETT@bentley.edu</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<DIV style="WORD-WRAP: break-word">Loved this post and Edith’s last one.
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Here is a very interesting, short statement from Rorty on Truth and a bit
on Pragmatism.
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzynRPP9XkY"
target=_blank>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzynRPP9XkY</A><BR>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Great newspaper article, Frans. I want to buy that guy’s book.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>My son, Caleb, says the main thing he likes about being a professor is
that it leaves you time for soccer/football (on the U of Miami campus).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dan</DIV></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV class=h5>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>On Mar 11, 2014, at 12:30 PM, Plank <<A
href="mailto:frans.plank@UNI-KONSTANZ.DE"
target=_blank>frans.plank@UNI-KONSTANZ.DE</A>> wrote:</DIV><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<DIV style="WORD-WRAP: break-word">Thank you, Edith, and to continue along
these lines, this is from the science quiz (apologies for the four-letter
word) in last week's Observer or Guardian -- the newspaper (whichever) that
not so long ago reported the non-existence of universal grammar, beating <A
href="http://edge.org/" target=_blank>Edge.org</A> to it.
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<H2 style="FONT-FAMILY: lucidagrande">True or false:</H2>
<H2 style="FONT-FAMILY: lucidagrande">5. Ni[e]ls Bohr – the father of
sub-atomic physics and a true genius of the 20th century and possibly the
brainiest man ever to walk the planet – used to be a professional
footballer.</H2>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: lucidagrande"> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: lucidagrande">Here's the answer about Niels, if
you're really interested in the truth of the matter:</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: lucidagrande"> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: lucidagrande">
<P style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">True. He used to play in goal for the Danish side
Akademisk Boldklub, and his brother played in mid-field (was so good in fact
he played for Denmark). Everybody in Denmark loved Ni[e]ls, he was brainy,
personable, an all round super star and national hero. So much so the Danish
brewer Carlsberg built him a house and gifted him a lifetime supply of free
beer. Hic.</P>
<P style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">If it weren't for him, Uncle Al would never have
been able to build the Boldklub Accelerator which reduces the size of
atoms.</P>
<P style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">Other notable if unlikely professional
goalkeepers include Albert Camus (French existential novelist), Pope
John-Paul 2nd (last Pope but one), Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock
Holmes) and Che Guevara (Cuban revolutionary).</P></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And here's no universal grammar:</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/mar/25/daniel-everett-human-language-piraha"
target=_blank>http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/mar/25/daniel-everett-human-language-piraha</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Calm down everybody. </DIV>
<DIV>Frans</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>
<DIV>On 11 Mar 2014, at 15:09, Edith A Moravcsik <<A
href="mailto:edith@uwm.edu" target=_blank>edith@uwm.edu</A>>
wrote:</DIV><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<DIV
style="WHITE-SPACE: normal; WORD-SPACING: 0px; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; FONT: 12px lucidagrande; LETTER-SPACING: normal; TEXT-INDENT: 0px">
<DIV
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'courier new',courier,monaco,monospace,sans-serif">Danish
physicist Niels Bohr said: "It is wrong to think that the task of physics
is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns only what we can SAY about
nature." (emphasis original)<BR><BR><BR></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><BR clear=all>
<DIV> </DIV>-- <BR>
<DIV dir=ltr>Pedro Tiago Martins<BR>PhD Student, Cognitive Science and
Language<BR>Universitat de Barcelona<BR>
<DIV><A href="http://sites.google.com/site/ptsgmartins"
target=_blank>http://sites.google.com/site/ptsgmartins</A><BR><A
href="http://bib.biolinguistics.eu"
target=_blank>http://bib.biolinguistics.eu</A></DIV>
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