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cousin_it comments on How SIAI could publish in mainstream cognitive science journals - Less Wrong Discussion

64 Post author: lukeprog 09 March 2011 09:17PM

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Comment author: cousin_it 11 March 2011 09:17:12PM *  2 points [-]

what's true in it isn't new, and what's new isn't true

The logical redundancy in this phrase has long bothered me.

Comment author: Vladimir_M 13 March 2011 04:09:47AM 2 points [-]

If I remember correctly, you're Russian? Those Slavic double negatives must be giving you constant distress, if you're so bothered by (seeming) deficiencies of logic in natural language.

Comment author: Emile 11 March 2011 09:48:43PM 0 points [-]

It's not redundant; it's a more witty and elegant way of saying that there are some new things, some true things, but none that are both.

Comment author: Sniffnoy 11 March 2011 10:24:34PM *  8 points [-]

It technically is redundant, though, because it has the form (A=>~B)&(B=>~A), while A=>~B and B=>~A are equivalent to each other. It doesn't need to be symmetrized because the statement was symmetric in the first place, even if it wasn't stated in an obviously symmetric form such as ~(A&B). (Going to have to say I like the redundant version for emphasis, though.)