[blml] De Wael School (was ...poll)

[Eric Landau]

At 12:25 AM 2/28/07, richard.hills wrote:

>Herman De Wael ("asked jesting Pilate" thread):
>
>What I find abhorring in all these cases is not
>that you seem to be saying that X is True, but that
>you are also saying that Y is false.  While all the
>time Y is actually what partner has.
>
>N:"4NT"
>E:"?"
>S:"asking for minors"
>S:"5Di"
>W:"?"
>N:"one ace" or "better diamonds than clubs"
>
>While systemically "one ace" may be True, in reality
>"better diamonds" is true. So why all this writing
>about "better diamonds" being False?
>
>What is Truth, indeed?

Truth comes not in the form of a noun (however qualified), but in the 
form of a statement, with a subject and a verb.  "One ace" or "better 
diamonds than clubs" is neither true nor false.  "He (by agreement) 
shows one ace" and "he (in fact) holds better diamonds than clubs" are 
true; "he holds one ace" and "he shows better diamonds than clubs" are 
false.  So only one of Herman's two answers can be "in reality" true; 
which one depends on what the question hidden behind those "?"s 
are!  If the question is "what does he show?", only "one ace" is the 
truth; if the question is "what does he hold?", only "better diamonds 
than clubs" is the truth.  As only one of those questions is legal, we 
should have no problem knowing which one we are to respond to.


Eric Landau                     ehaa at starpower.net
1107 Dale Drive                 (301) 608-0347
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