From: Robin Lee Powell (rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org)
Date: Wed Jan 04 2006 - 16:18:33 MST
On Wed, Jan 04, 2006 at 05:57:36PM -0500, Jeff Medina wrote:
> On 1/4/06, Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org> wrote:
> > On Wed, Jan 04, 2006 at 01:25:04PM -0600, Damien Broderick
> > wrote:
> > > I'm pretty sure I'm nearly as smart and cynical as you are, in
> > > general; Loosemore and I both have Ph.D.s in academic
> > > disciplines, which speaks to the latter claim if not the
> > > former. :)
> >
> > Surely you meant that the other way around?!
> >
> > If you would like me to research a few examples of people with
> > Utterly Crazy Beliefs (i.e. not sufficiently cynical people)
> > with Ph.D.s in academic disciplines, I don't think it'd take me
> > very long.
>
> Since he said "speaks to" rather than "entails", providing
> examples of the alternative case does not undermine his claim. As
> long as people with PhDs are the tiniest bit more likely to be
> sufficiently cynical than those who do not obtain PhDs, that
> Damien has a PhD speaks to the claim that Damien is sufficiently
> cynical.
All true, but "if not the former" still makes me think he meant it
the other way around. Perhaps that was what the smiley was for.
-Robin
-- http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/ *** http://www.lojban.org/ Reason #237 To Learn Lojban: "Homonyms: Their Grate!" Proud Supporter of the Singularity Institute - http://intelligence.org/
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