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Article 6196 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: holmes@opal.idbsu.edu (Randall Holmes)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.college,comp.ai.philosophy,sci.philosophy.meta,sci.philosophy.tech,talk.philosophy.misc,sci.logic
Subject: Re: why question
Message-ID: <1992Jun10.171229.6191@guinness.idbsu.edu>
Date: 10 Jun 92 17:12:29 GMT
References: <1992Jun5.073942.5184@fulcrum.oz.au> <1992Jun5.184210.26650@neptune.inf.ethz.ch> <1992Jun10.143453.588@uniwa.uwa.edu.au>
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In article <1992Jun10.143453.588@uniwa.uwa.edu.au> chester@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Craig Abbott) writes:
>santas@inf.ethz.ch (Philip Santas) writes:
>>>
>>>I remember a similar story from a few years back, where the question on the
>>>paper was "Answer this question."
>>>The guy who got top marks just answered "Question this answer."
>
>>The diagnosis for such recursive cases is "Pathological self reference",
>>and proves the well known theorem: a stupid answer is the only possible for
>>a stupid question (the reverse is not always true).
>
>>Philip Santas
>
>Another story in the same vein:
>
>	Q:"Is this a question?"

But the self reference here is not pathological!  The answer is "Yes"...

>
>	A:"If that is a question then this is an answer."
>
>Also 'A' material I believe.....

so the grade is F; not all occurrences of self-reference lead to
trouble!


>
>
>='"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'=
>= chester@tartarus.uwa.edu.au aka Craig Abbott                                =
>= "Sorry about the mess." - Han Solo                                          =
>"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"
>--
>='"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'=
>= chester@tartarus.uwa.edu.au aka Craig Abbott                                =
>= "Sorry about the mess." - Han Solo                                          =
>"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"


-- 
The opinions expressed		|     --Sincerely,
above are not the "official"	|     M. Randall Holmes
opinions of any person		|     Math. Dept., Boise State Univ.
or institution.			|     holmes@opal.idbsu.edu


