Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site aecom.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!wjh12!talcott!harvard!seismo!cmcl2!philabs!aecom!werner
From: werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: By any other name ...
Message-ID: <1025@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 15-Dec-84 14:30:11 EST
Article-I.D.: aecom.1025
Posted: Sat Dec 15 14:30:11 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Dec-84 02:18:51 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 23

<>


     Daneel said, "Why should a difference in a word make any
difference to the thing described?"
     " 'That which we call a rose by any other name would smell 
as sweet.' Is that it, Daneel?"
     Daneel paused, then said, "I am not certain what is meant 
by the smell of a rose, but if a rose on Earth is the common
flower that is called a rose on Aurora, and if by its 'smell' you
mean a property that can be detected, sensed, or measured by
human beings, then surely calling a rose by another sound-
combination -- and holding all else equal -- would not affect
the smell or any other of its intrinsic properties."

          Dialogue between Elijah Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw
          Isaac Asimov _The Robots of Dawn_

[A demonstration of the problem of human metaphor.]
-- 
				Craig Werner
				!philabs!aecom!werner
		What do you expect?  Watermelons are out of season!