Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 09:32:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: dicconf <dicconf at radix.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Logic [was: Re: [WSFA] Re: Spy plane crash?]

On Thu, 23 Jun 2005, Elspeth Kovar wrote:

> Mike, I really don't care about the things that you got wrong in this
> conversation and am not going to argue them.  I was using your more or less
> minor errors to construct a simple "IF A AND B THEN C" formulation.  To put
> it more clearly:
>
> Statement A: you are wrong some of the time.  This has been proven to be
> true. (See notes)
> Statement B: "if they are wrong some of the time, they aren't believable
> any of the time"  This you are asserting to be true and I am asserting is
> not true.

It is not, logically, true in fact, but it's "true" in the sense of being
a practical rule: "False in one thing, false in all".  If a lawyer catches
a witness in a falsehood, he is quite in order asserting that this creates
a doubt about the witness' entire testimony.

-- Dick Eney

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