Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site eosp1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!eosp1!robison From: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) Newsgroups: net.ai Subject: Re: Commonsense reasoning Message-ID: <955@eosp1.UUCP> Date: Thu, 21-Jun-84 17:15:09 EDT Article-I.D.: eosp1.955 Posted: Thu Jun 21 17:15:09 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 22-Jun-84 20:38:39 EDT Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ Lines: 21 References: >> Q: If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a sheep have? >> A: Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. I find this answer less satisfactory than the two given below. It seems to me that "calling an X a Y" is exactly how we define what most things are. SO: A: One. A tail is leg, those other four things are obviously something else. OR: A: Five. If you call it a leg, it is a leg (albeit of a different kind), in addition to those other four legs. - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) allegra!eosp1!robison decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison princeton!eosp1!robison