[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Christopher Hicks) writes:A Renee Descartes joke. Randal is a very funny guy. Remember "I think
therefore I am" well the corollary is "I think not therefore I am not" which leads to several versions of Descartes philosophically humorous
demise. It's the single most popular philosophy joke in my experience.
The only philosophy class I took in college was Logic. And there I learned that you are wrong. "I think, therefore I am" does not imply "I think not, therefore I am not." It does, however, imply "I am not, therefore I think not" (and vice-versa). This is called "modus tollens" and you can read more about it from Wikipedia, the open-source encyclopedia: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modus_tollens
While you are correct as far as logic goes, that point is debatable. A lot of the (early) refutations on Descartes's sentence have focussed on whether his "therefore" (ergo) was justified. In fact, in the Meditations (IIRC) it is "I think, I am" (cogito, sum). Numerous cartesians have used this argument to support their view that according to Descartes, thinking and being entertain a relationship of identity rather than one of implication. It is their view that the "ergo" only served Descartes as a mean to free himself from the grip of the Malin G�nie. And given identity, negation applies both ways.
Now, of course, this doesn't tell us where our philosophical reptile is. Nor does it solve Pod::DocBook's problem. If Alligator has really vanished, then intervention by modules@ may be necessary.
--robin
