Feeling somewhat put out by the fact that I didn't know anything about Betrand Russell, I used Google to find some relevant websites. Up until this point I tended to believe that a little learning never hurt anyone that was until I read the following..
Russell discovered the paradox which bears his name in May 1901, while working on his Principles of Mathematics (1903). The paradox arose in connection with the set of all sets which are not members of themselves. Such a set, if it exists, will be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself.
I am trying to wrap my inadequate brain like powers around this concept but considering I left school with a CSE in Arithmetic I'm not coping too well. I think I'm better off day-dreaming about clockwork mills that can make chocolate biscuits out of breadcrumbs and butterbeans.
Some adjectives describe other words. "Bisyllabic" is an example, it describes words like "butter" and "football", but not "peg" or "antidisestablishmentarianism".
Some such adjectives have the weird property that they describe themselves: the best example is "pentasyllabic", but others include "recherche". We'll call such adjectives "autonomic", because they name themselves. If they don't name themselves, we call them "heteronomic". So "pentasyllabic" is autonomic, but "bisyllabic" is heteronomic.
The question Russell asks, put in this form: is "heteronomic" heteronomic?
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timeasmymeasure
A little learning....
Date: 2002-09-24 07:37 am (UTC)Feeling somewhat put out by the fact that I didn't know anything about Betrand Russell, I used Google to find some relevant websites. Up until this point I tended to believe that a little learning never hurt anyone that was until I read the following..
Russell discovered the paradox which bears his name in May 1901, while working on his Principles of Mathematics (1903). The paradox arose in connection with the set of all sets which are not members of themselves. Such a set, if it exists, will be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself.
I am trying to wrap my inadequate brain like powers around this concept but considering I left school with a CSE in Arithmetic I'm not coping too well. I think I'm better off day-dreaming about clockwork mills that can make chocolate biscuits out of breadcrumbs and butterbeans.
Re: A little learning....
Date: 2002-09-24 08:59 am (UTC)Some adjectives describe other words. "Bisyllabic" is an example, it describes words like "butter" and "football", but not "peg" or "antidisestablishmentarianism".
Some such adjectives have the weird property that they describe themselves: the best example is "pentasyllabic", but others include "recherche". We'll call such adjectives "autonomic", because they name themselves. If they don't name themselves, we call them "heteronomic". So "pentasyllabic" is autonomic, but "bisyllabic" is heteronomic.
The question Russell asks, put in this form: is "heteronomic" heteronomic?