Thinking Clearly - Latest Comments in Merry War on Xmas

Re: Merry War on Xmas

bijan — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 22:05:38 -0000

I'll note that the fact of jen's post contradicts what jen said in that post! I was actually studying such sentences in my prior thesis topic.

Re: Merry War on Xmas

Jen — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 21:04:33 -0000

For all x such that thinksThisIsFunny(x), HasTimeToComeUpWithMoreLogicStatementsToCarryOnThisDiscussion(x), x not Jen, lame(x)

Re: Merry War on Xmas

bijan — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 12:35:21 -0000

Good point, Jordan. It's probably the case that you aren't meant to be doing all for everyone, but the appropriate ones for each. I think I still tend to think of them as substitutes for "Merry Xmas and Happy New Year", which is what they replaced for me. How Xmas centric of me! Maybe not...I think everyone gets a Happy New Year.

So, to update the updated one:

For all x, y such that Holiday(x), OccursAfter(x, dec 1), OccursBefore(x, jan 2), holidayFor(x, you), greetingFor(y, x), wishes(bijan, you, y)

Or to get more in touch with my inner me:

For all x, y such that Holiday(x), OccursAfter(x, dec 1), OccursBefore(x, jan 2), holidayFor(x, you), notLoathedBy(x, bijan), greetingFor(y, x), wishes(bijan, you, y)

Add your own codicil (e.g., notInvolvingAnimalSacrafice(x), etc.)

Re: Merry War on Xmas

bijan — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 12:26:37 -0000

Aditya and I, in IM, arrived at a different version for Season's Greetings.

(Assume bijan and you are logical constants...replace with the appropriate parties)

For all x, y such that Holiday(x), OccursAfter(x, dec 1), OccursBefore(x, jan 2), greetingFor(y, x), wishes(bijan, you, y)

I suspect the start date is a bit flexible (e.g., Dec 12 is prolly fine, may even be better). To make this into Happy Holidays, you need to kill he greetingFor, then muck with the wishes operator...which really isn't a predicate, but a propositional attitude. So we have an intensional structure no matter what.

Re: Merry War on Xmas

Jordan — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 12:25:45 -0000

I think there's a common interpretation of 'Happy Holidays' that's more inline with the form of 'Season's Greetings':

For all x, if x is such that celebrates(greetee, x), then may happyFor(x, greetee) hold.

Which means the thing ('holiday') you're quantifying over is relative to the greetee, rather than some agreed upon domain of holidays (since that's clearly contentious--even if only by idiots--Oreilly: 'What?? Kwanza is not a holiday!'). Plus, there's a prevailing assumption that you only celebrate one holiday, so it seems plausible to make the happyness of the holiday relative to the person being greeted too.

What's neat is that the truth value of the consequent, happyFor(x, greetee), is completely dependent upon the person being greeted; you're only *wishing* for it to be true :)