Nick_Tarleton comments on Rationality Quotes 3 - Less Wrong

7 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 18 January 2008 02:20AM

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Comment author: Nick_Tarleton 18 January 2008 03:40:50PM 6 points [-]

"How many legs does a dog have, if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."

No, it has five. There's nothing special about the word "leg" that requires that a dog have four of them. Of course, if you equivocate between the two definitions and conclude that a dog has five paws, you have a problem, and I assume this is Lincoln's point.