tautology

Jul 22

eldonepistemology , , , , , , 3 Comments

In science, these two types of organization of data (description and explanation) are connected by what is technically called tautology. …
..Von Neumann, in his famous book [“The theory of games and economic behaviour. 1944), expressly points out the differences between his tautological world and the more complex world of human relations. All that is claimed is that if the axioms be such and such and the postulates such and such, then the theorems will be so and so. In other words, all the tautology affords is connections between propositions. The creator of the tautology stakes his reputation on the validity of these connections.
Tautology contains no information whatsoever, and explanation (the mapping of description onto tautology) contains only the information that was present in the description. The “mapping” asserts implicitly that the links which hold the tautology together correspond to relations which obtain in the description. Description, on the other hand, contains information but no logic and no explanation. For some reason, human beings enormously value this combining of ways of organizing information or material.
To illustrate how description, tautology, and explanation fit together, let me cite an assignment which I have given several times to classes. I am indebted to astronomer Jeff Scargle for this problem, but I am responsible for the solution. The problem is:

A man is shaving with his razor in his right hand. He looks into his mirror and sees his image shaving with his left hand. He says, “Oh, there’s been a reversal of right and left. Why is there no reversal of top and bottom?”

(Mind & Nature: 76-77)

no grammar today

Jul 19

eldonepistemology, general observations, language and brain, language and culture, lexico-grammar, mode and modalities, parody 1 Comment

having travelled across australia a third of the way and back just recently, i can confidently assert that there is no grammar today. there is a lot of weather about, and, in rural areas coffee is available but weak and not so milky or firm frothy for the cappuccino-afficionados out there. in addition, one has to invariably state that one would like one’s coffee to be served in a cup, not a mug.
as for grammar, we saw none on the way, and had to make do with random gurgles and unrelated-to-each-other signs or icons.

dan everett on endangered languages

Jul 08

eldonlanguage and culture No Comments

well, here’s a video lecture

– sorry clown meldrew you cannot see it, maybe you can hear it? – where dan talks about his anthropological research on a language in brazil, and makes points that chomsky and pinker are not really correct… heh…. along the way where he talks about this particular language. most interesting in that it provides evidence for non-universality, but also just in itself.

random quotation#1

Jul 04

eldongeneral observations 6 Comments

“One always feels a bit sheepish, of course, about bringing the metaphor concept into the social sciences and perhaps that is because one always feels there is something soft and wooly about it.”

[your task, should you decide to accept it, is to attribute.]

[oh no, do not use google, that would be TOO easy.]

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