From: Steve Vickers <s.j.vickers@cs.bham.ac.uk>
To: "Fred E.J. Linton" <fejlinton@usa.net>
Cc: Jean Benabou <jean.benabou@wanadoo.fr>, Categories <categories@mta.ca>
Subject: Re: Terminology
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2017 08:48:10 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <E1cdeUy-0007wy-I7@mlist.mta.ca> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <070VBkupz0000S02.1486845771@web02.cms.usa.net>
Dear Fred,
A good answer, but my point was that it was a bad question.
You see this once you start pressing at the details. Are seals and turtles fish? No, but on your definition it depends on whether flippers count as legs or not. What about sea snakes? Obviously not - they're snakes, that just happen to live in the sea. But then eels do seem a bit more fishy.
A meticulous zoologist would start piling on the subclauses to pin it down more precisely, but we know that that does not actually refine our understanding of zoology. It just amplifies the misconceptions underlying the original question.
I'm saying the same can happen in mathematics.
All the best,
Steve.
> On 11 Feb 2017, at 20:42, Fred E.J. Linton <fejlinton@usa.net> wrote:
>
> Steve, et al.,
>
> If you want
>
>> a definition of "fish", but on the understanding that it has to include
> whales
>
> let me offer: "legless marine vertebrates" :-) .
>
> Cheers, -- tlvp
>
[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2017-02-14 8:48 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 64+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2017-02-11 20:42 Terminology Fred E.J. Linton
2017-02-14 8:48 ` Steve Vickers [this message]
[not found] ` <02568D97-0A72-4CA8-8900-BDE11E890890@cs.bham.ac.uk>
2017-02-14 9:39 ` Terminology Jean Benabou
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2017-02-09 22:03 Terminology Andrée Ehresmann
2017-02-08 8:03 Terminology Jean Benabou
2017-02-08 16:34 ` Terminology Jirí Adámek
2017-02-10 1:42 ` Terminology George Janelidze
2017-02-08 21:40 ` Terminology Carsten Führmann
2017-02-09 11:31 ` Terminology Thomas Streicher
[not found] ` <20170208180636.18346065.28939.42961@rbccm.com>
2017-02-09 16:38 ` Terminology Jean Benabou
2017-02-11 15:07 ` Terminology Steve Vickers
2013-05-02 3:57 Terminology Fred E.J. Linton
2013-05-03 11:53 ` Terminology Robert Dawson
2013-05-02 3:57 Terminology Fred E.J. Linton
2013-04-30 1:20 Terminology Fred E.J. Linton
2013-04-24 17:13 Terminology Jean Bénabou
2013-04-24 23:04 ` Terminology David Roberts
2013-04-27 13:08 ` Terminology Thomas Streicher
[not found] ` <20130427130857.GC16801@mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de>
2013-04-28 3:49 ` Terminology Jean Bénabou
2013-04-28 22:47 ` Terminology Olivier Gerard
[not found] ` <557435A6-4568-4012-8C63-E031931F41FB@wanadoo.fr>
2013-04-28 14:17 ` Terminology Thomas Streicher
2013-04-29 20:05 ` Terminology Toby Bartels
2013-04-30 0:58 ` Terminology Peter May
2010-09-29 2:03 terminology Todd Trimble
2010-09-28 4:38 terminology Eduardo J. Dubuc
2010-05-27 18:31 terminology Colin McLarty
2010-05-19 10:38 Re terminology: Ronnie Brown
2010-05-20 7:58 ` soloviev
2010-05-20 19:53 ` terminology Eduardo J. Dubuc
[not found] ` <AANLkTikre9x4Qikw0mqOl1qZs9DDSkcBu3CXWA05OTQT@mail.gmail.com>
2010-05-21 17:00 ` Re terminology: Ronnie Brown
[not found] ` <B3C24EA955FF0C4EA14658997CD3E25E370F5827@CAHIER.gst.uqam.ca>
2010-05-22 21:43 ` terminology Ronnie Brown
[not found] ` <4BF84FF3.7060806@btinternet.com>
2010-05-22 22:44 ` terminology Joyal, André
2010-05-23 15:39 ` terminology Colin McLarty
2010-05-24 18:04 ` terminology Vaughan Pratt
2010-05-26 3:08 ` terminology Toby Bartels
2010-05-25 14:08 ` terminology John Baez
2010-05-26 8:03 ` terminology Reinhard Boerger
2010-05-25 19:39 ` terminology Colin McLarty
2010-05-29 21:47 ` terminology Toby Bartels
2010-05-30 19:15 ` terminology Thorsten Altenkirch
[not found] ` <A46C7965-B4E7-42E6-AE97-6C1D930AC878@cs.nott.ac.uk>
2010-05-30 20:51 ` terminology Toby Bartels
2010-06-01 7:39 ` terminology Thorsten Altenkirch
2010-06-01 13:33 ` terminology Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine
[not found] ` <7BF50141-7775-4D3C-A4AF-D543891666B9@cs.nott.ac.uk>
2010-06-01 18:22 ` terminology Toby Bartels
[not found] ` <AANLkTilG69hcX7ZV8zrLpQ_nf1pCmyktsnuE0RyJtQYF@mail.gmail.com>
2010-05-26 8:28 ` terminology John Baez
2010-05-16 12:44 terminology Peter Selinger
2010-05-13 17:17 bilax_monoidal_functors Michael Shulman
2010-05-14 14:43 ` terminology (was: bilax_monoidal_functors) Peter Selinger
2010-05-15 19:52 ` terminology Toby Bartels
2010-05-08 3:27 RE : bilax monoidal functors John Baez
2010-05-10 18:16 ` bilax_monoidal_functors?= John Baez
2010-05-11 8:28 ` bilax_monoidal_functors?= Michael Batanin
2010-05-12 3:02 ` bilax_monoidal_functors?= Toby Bartels
2010-05-13 23:09 ` bilax_monoidal_functors?= Michael Batanin
2010-05-15 16:05 ` terminology Joyal, André
2007-01-27 17:06 terminology wlawvere
2007-01-26 23:30 terminology Eduardo Dubuc
2005-12-30 1:16 terminology vs27
2005-12-29 19:09 terminology Nikita Danilov
2005-12-10 3:51 Terminology jean benabou
2005-12-21 20:04 ` Terminology Eduardo Dubuc
2005-12-26 19:47 ` terminology Vaughan Pratt
2005-12-29 23:17 ` terminology Eduardo Dubuc
2006-01-04 14:59 ` terminology Eduardo Dubuc
2003-10-17 15:19 terminology Marco Grandis
2003-10-16 21:39 terminology James Stasheff
2001-04-09 11:06 Terminology Krzysztof Worytkiewicz
2000-12-14 6:17 Terminology Max Kelly
[not found] <3a35cdd73a39f901@amyris.wanadoo.fr>
2000-12-13 11:10 ` Terminology Dr. P.T. Johnstone
2000-12-13 1:17 Terminology Steve Lack
2000-12-12 8:19 Terminology Jean Benabou
2000-01-28 12:02 terminology James Stasheff
2000-01-28 9:57 terminology Marco Grandis
2000-01-27 19:28 terminology James Stasheff
2000-01-27 21:04 ` terminology Paul Glenn
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