Heidegger

In a message dated 31/12/2007 17:15:39 GMT Standard Time,
artefact at t-online.de writes:

> JP: first you draw our attention to the OED entry for ‘predicate’ by
> quoting
> a *fragment* of an entry. then I quote the full text of two entries
> found under ‘predicate’ and point out that in none of the examples is
> ‘is’ alone treated as a predicate. then you complain that there are no
> examples of the intransitive useage of ‘is’ listed in the OED entry for
> ‘predicate’. then you conclude that this means that ‘is’ alone is a
> predicate.

Dr. Fallacia:

Of course, by far the overwhelming number of examples of sentences that
come to mind will have more elaborate predicates than saying merely, ‘The
tree is’. But what is at issue is precisely the usage of the verb ‘to be’ as
a predicate, i.e. whether it says anything. And that’s why I adduced the
partial definition in the OED from a long entry covering a couple of pages. I
was not arguing on the basis of examples from the OED, and it is only your
tendentiousness that suggests that I should have been.
Jud:
ADDUCED? TWISTED and GRATUITOUSLY AND MALICIOUSLY CHANGED to suit your own
craziness you mean.
You are not dealing with a crowd of kangaroo-herders from Ayer’s Rock on
this list you know.
People can spot a manipulative phoney a mile away.

Dr. Fallacia:
I am arguing according to simple formal logic that “‘is’ alone is a
predicate”. What objection do you have? Do you have an objection?
Jud:
IS in NOT a predicate O’ Nutty One. It acts sometimes as an introductant of
an identifier predicate.

*Bill is the local butcher.* (Bill –> the local butcher)
*Joe is the Lord Mayor.* (Joe –> Lord Major)

or

As the introductant of a descriptive predicate that follows [or is sometimes
sententially inverted)

*The apple is green* (The apple –> green)

The sentence:

*The apple is* is not an acceptable sentence in English. Try stopping
someone in the street and saying *The apple is* and see what happens you dope.

*The apple is.* is a TAUTOLOGICAL REDUNDANCY. The conceptual instantiation
of *the apple* does not REQUIRE the *is* and the *is* adds nothing to the
meaning - IT IS A REDUNDANCY O’ Dopey One.

What have you got for brains - dried sauerkraut or kangaroo crap?

Jud
Personal Website:
_http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/index.htm_
 http://evans-experientialism.freewebspac…)

“The greatest of all the spirit’s task is to produce a worldview.
The reconstruction of our age can begin only with a reconstruction
of its theory of the universe. There is hardly anything more urgent
in its claim on us than this which seems to be so far off and abstract.”

-From The Philosophy of Civilization by Albert Schweitzer

Posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 5:55 pm
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