grue and bleen

[Joel S. Berson]

At 10/19/2010 10:25 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 9:49 AM -0400 10/19/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>In my personal experience, something is grue if I call it "green" and
>>a particular acquaintance, no names being used, calls it "blue"; and
>>is bleen if I call it "blue" and that same unnamed acquaintance calls
>>it "green".
>>
>>Joel
>
>OK, sounds good; now you just need someone to write a poem on your
>practice and publish (or at least web-post) it.  The rest of us will
>be grue with envy--or bleen, depending on the time of day.
>
>LH

Thinking back to his limerick on "dog", I'll ask Jon.

P.S.  I later thought, my experience too can be described in terms of
times: T1, T2, T3, ... .  I say one color at T1.  My acquaintance
contradicts me at T2.  I insist on my color at T3. ... .

Joel



>>At 10/18/2010 09:57 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>Well, there's a "grue" I'm familiar with, but it's not the one hiding
>>>in "gruesome".  In a classic paper or book (I forget which, since I
>>>didn't read it, but just recall the cite) on induction, the mid-20th
>>>century philosopher of Nelson Goodman proposes "grue" as the label
>>>for a color of objects that are green when seen before noon (or
>>>whenever) and blue when seen after it.  (As opposed to "bleen", which
>>>has the opposite property but didn't catch on to the same extent.)
>>>The puzzle had to do with why we assume objects that look green are
>>>green rather than grue.
>>>
>>>Let's see if I can google it up...  Yup, and even with a somewhat
>>>less than immortal ode to the color "grue":
>>>
>>>Nelson Goodman seems quite keen
>>>Induction yet to show anew
>>>Is somewhat sick as will be seen
>>>And may not be completely true.
>>>
>>>Is this leaf a lovely green?
>>>Or is it rather colored grue?
>>>Is the sky above quite bleen?
>>>Or am I right in seeing blue?
>>>
>>>I really don't care to be mean
>>>And have no wish to Goodman skew;
>>>But childish puzzles can demean;
>>>Has he nothing else to do??
>>>-JSH, "On 'The New Riddle of Induction'"
>>>http://www.massline.org/philosdog/G/Goodman.htm
>>
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>
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