unbent@ecsvax.UUCP (11/02/84)
Re: flairvax.803, wherein Baba writes: >The question then becomes: What is the difference between an event that >certainly *will* not happen and an event that certainly *can* not happen? Depends on how you're taking "certainly", doesn't it? If you're confusing it with "necessarily" -- something that people who run predictability and determinism together tend to do -- then there isn't any difference [unless you subscribe to a modal logic weaker than S4 -- but let's ignore the subtleties of iterated modalities for now. ;-) ]. If, however, you respect the difference between *epistemic* notions (predictable, certain) and *ontological* notions (determined, necessary), then the difference will be clear. There are lots of contingent truths about which I'm certain and plenty of necessary truths (e.g., mathematical truths) which I may believe, but about which I'm quite uncertain. [I gather that even mathematicians are divided on the question of whether the truth of the four-color theorem is now known with certainty.] Yours for clearer concepts, --Jay Rosenberg Dept. of Philosophy ...mcnc!ecsvax!unbent Univ. of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC 27514