On Tue, 31 Aug 1999, Russell Standish wrote:
> [JM wrote]
> > > > I use the terms SSA, ASSA, RSSA only because others on the list
> > > > insist on using them. In my opinion the 'ASSA' is a tautology and not
> > > > an assumption, while the 'RSSA' is an error.
> > >
> > > ASSA <!=> SSA. ASSA makes explicit the sample set over which SSA is
> > > applied. So does RSSA (the sample set being different to the ASSA
> > > case). A third possibility is SSA of birth rank, as used in Leslie
> > > Carter's arguments.
> >
> > Ok. Nothing in your paragraph contradicts what I said.
>
> Then maybe I misunderstood you. A tautology is a term with redundant
> parts, ie it is equivalent to some subset of itself. I took your
> statement that "ASSA is a tautology" to mean that ASSA is equivalent
> to SSA (symbolically ASSA <=> SSA). I directly contradict this in my
> first sentence.
>From WordNet (r) 1.6 (wn)
tautology n 1: (in logic) a statement that is necessarily true; "the
statement `he is brave or he is not brave' is a tautology" 2: useless
repetition; "to say that something is `adequate enough' is a tautology"
I was not aware of meaning 2 of the word, while I have
frequently encountered the word used for meaning 1.
- - - - - - -
Jacques Mallah (jqm1584.domain.name.hidden)
Graduate Student / Many Worlder / Devil's Advocate
"I know what no one else knows" - 'Runaway Train', Soul Asylum
My URL:
http://pages.nyu.edu/~jqm1584/
Received on Thu Sep 02 1999 - 14:20:50 PDT