Hacker News Reader

Forgive the dumb question but what is False about ‘∀x eggplant(x) ⇒ fruit(x)’

I think it's a poor example, because whether or not an eggplant is considered a fruit depends on your perspective and context. It is a fruit botanically, but it is not typically considered or used as one for culinary purposes.

That distinction of ambiguity adds an interesting complexity to "meaningness," but I agree that it's confusing in relationship to the rest of this specific article.

Alright, that was the only thing I could thing of that would cause my confusion here. I viewed it simply as 'it's False to say all eggplants are fruits' but I guess the author's intention was 'because people consider eggplants to be culinarily a vegetable, saying all eggplants are fruits is False'.

It's an interesting addition to the disgusting about meaning in linguistics, but according to formal logic as used by linguistics, is the eggplant example even correct? It seems as though no matter what, 'an eggplant is a fruit' is True, and perhaps there is a different logical notation to imply it could be considered otherwise depending on context.

Technically it is a fruit but its like tomatoes where lots of people say its a vegetable anyway.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com