[FOM] Why inclusive disjunction?

Max Weiss mmweiss at sfu.ca
Fri Jan 12 20:45:01 EST 2007


On Jan 11, 2007, at 1:08 PM, Neil Tennant wrote:

> Back in 1975 there was a conference in Canterbury, Kent, where the  
> last
> stage of the breakfast cafetaria line had a sign saying "Cereal or  
> orange
> juice". I put both a glass of (rather synthetic-tasting) OJ and a  
> bowl of
> (rather tired-looking) All Bran flakes on my tray, and the check- 
> out lady
> upbraided me. My appeal to inclusive "or", and the authority of  
> several
> amused logicians in the line behind me, was to no avail. Exclusive  
> "or"
> prevailed. I think I opted for the juice.

This reminds me of an observation due to Ray Jennings:

"You can have coffee or you can have tea"

entails

"you can have coffee". 
       


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