[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Mind bending philosophy dilemmas in multiple choice tests.

[Aberforth's Goat]

Sam wondered,

> Q: Which of the following is NOT true for a particular film?
> A) An option which may or may not be true.
> B) Another option which may or may not be true.
> C) A third option which may or may not be true.
> D) All of the above are true.

Oi Oi Oi Oi! Just when I'm *really* * honestly* trying to get some work
done, this comes up.

What fun! (As in wheeeeeeee - wow!) I think logic puzzles are the most
exciting thing there is, and I love paging through books by Smullyan, even
though I seldom understand them and can't usually get the right answers. I
just love the gnosticism of it, I believe. Anyway, my take on this is that D
is a nonsense statement. A,B and C each makes the following sort of
statement:

Either X or non-X is the case. (Put simply, "x and non-x")

Example:

The film may or may not be about Harry Potter.

However, such a statement is non-falsifiable. That is (assuming the law of
the excluded middle), there is no way it could be proven false, since it
presents both a statement and its contradiction. In fact, *it does not make
a truth claim.* If a statement does not make a truth claim, it cannot be
true. Hence D is false.

Reminds me of the old chestnut: Is this statement true or false?

"This statement is false."

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray who *must* get his sermon going and stop
fooling around. Someone *please* hack my internet connection and put me
off-line for 24 hours!)
_______________________

"Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been
bravery...."