Re: A definition of 'two' (2) please?


John Jones wrote:
user13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
John Jones wrote:
If I put one troll in the fridge and then another in the freezer, then

is it by definition, or by example, that I have two trolls?

If Mary in Perth puts a troll in the fridge, and John in Cardiff puts
a troll in the freezer, then is it by definition, or by example, that
there are two instances of one troll, two instances of a troll, or
two trolls?


So, if there is any justice in the world, are
1) two instances of one thing
2) two instances of a thing
3) two things


the same? and by example or definition?

Depends upon their functionality.

Yes, but that's too skeletal to do much with.

Two instances of one thing are two separate, distinct things by dint of
their different location in space/time even if in all other respects
they are identical, which in the example you gave, they aren't anyway.

Taking your example, a frozen rabbit is not functionally the same as a
chilled one (I'm assuming for the sake of simplification that they are
both dead). Both are food, but one can also be used to deconstruct a
person's cranium with considerably more ease than the other. The
physical separation of the objects also makes one more useful than the
other depending on where you are, and why you want a rabbit. A rabbit
in either Perth or Cardiff is no use whatsoever as anything other than
an academic exercise if you are not in either Cardiff or Perth, and
even if you are, they have less utility if you have no stew pan, or
nobody whose cranium you wish to deconstruct.

.

Relevant Pages