[Corpora-List] PS:minimal changes in a paragraph (based on a corpus it appeared) ... (2nd attempt (after first one was deleted))

[Angus Grieve-Smith]

On 8/9/2011 11:22 AM, Bill Louw wrote:
> Russell continues:'IT IS A LANGUAGE THAT HAS ONLY SYNTAX AND NO 
> VOCABULARY WHATSOEVER.(My emphasis). Barring the omission of a 
> vocabulary I maintain that it is quite a nice language. It aims at 
> being the sort of language that, if you add a vocabulary, would be a 
> logically perfect language.' He adds that actual languages are not 
> logically perfect in this sense...
>

     Then it's not a language, it's a model of a language.  I'm sure 
it's a very nice model, and useful for all sorts of purposes.  But Gödel 
showed that in general models can never completely capture reality, and 
that Russell's models specifically can never completely capture 
language.  One of the biggest mistakes a scientist can make is to reify 
their own model.  It is a dangerous form of hubris that can lead science 
off course for generations.

-- 
				-Angus B. Grieve-Smith
				Saint John's University
				grvsmth at panix.com

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