Thoughts to you from yours truly - ( 67 ) - April 2, 2011

Thoughts to You from Yours Truly - ( TYYT ) - ( 67 ) - Self Reference Statement ( 自我參照的句子) - April 2, 2011

Language, logic and truth are all inter-connected like most natural or inter-personal phenomena in this world. In fact, language is the product of our consciousness which is in turn the basis and tool for our understanding of reality as we know it. According to the famous British scientist and mathematical physicist, Sir Roger Penrose who wrote the huge book The Road to Reality : A Complete guide to the Laws of the Universe there are, in fact, three separate sets of realities in this world - the physical world governed by invariant laws of nature ; our private mental world controlled by our own personal creative and imaginative rules and the perfect but theoretical mathematical world operated by rules of pure logic with absolute accuracy.
語言，邏輯和真理，都是互相關聯的事物，這就正如大多數自然界和人際關係的事情一般。其實，語言是我們意識下的產品，而意識又是我們接觸現實的基礎和工 具。根據英國數學物理學家，羅渣本諾斯 （ Sir Roger Penrose ) 在他的長達一千頁的巨著，The Road to Reality : A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe ( 到現實之路）中所詳述，現實是分為三個層面的。它們就是，被永不變易定律控制着的自然世界，擁有着個人的創造性和強大幻想力的精神世界，以及完美和純邏輯的精 確數學世界三者。


Let us talk about the language we must use to communicate with other living beings to get some insight into this important communication tool. Apart from the Ex-ante and Ex-post statements ( see my blog entry here :- http://jkhcforum.blogspot.com/2011/03/thoughts-to-you-from-yours-truly-65.html ) with predictive and simply historical contents respectively there are also some special cases of logically inconsistent statements in terms of their content. These are called self reference statements as discovered by the great British philosopher, Bertrand Russell. Although this is a very special case smart thinkers should also be aware of its existence to avoid getting into an illogical fallacy.
讓我們談談有關語言這種重要的溝通工具，希望藉機獲得一些深刻見解。除了以前提及的Ex-ante ( 前瞻句）和Ex-post (事後句），分別為預測性和歷史性的句語（ 在我這裡的部落格可重溫 http://jkhcforum.blogspot.com/2011/03/thoughts-to-you-from- yours-truly-65.html ）之外，也有些特殊句子，它們裡面是存在着一些邏輯上的謬誤，稱為self reference statement （自我參照句子），是偉大的英國哲學家，羅素（Bertrand Russell )所發現的。雖然它們只是極少數例子，但是作為一個有醒目思維的人，我們也應該認識到它們的性質和存在,以免墮入它們的邏輯謬誤中。


Take this question for example :- " This statement is wrong, true or false ? " If we say " true " then it would mean that the statement is wrong. On the other hand, if we say " false " it would mean that the statement is right. Either way, we end up with an illogical answer. The reason lies with the negative meaning of the word wrong and the positive and negative meanings of the other two words " true " and " false " respectively. Since the statement itself refers to nothing outside its own construction ( or some other fact apart from itself ) it is called a self reference statement. This will result in the combined effect of the word " wrong " ( a negative ) with the word " false " ( another negative ) to make the result positive ( implying the positive and opposite meaning of " right " ) - two negatives make a positive. If the other positive word " true " is applied then the resulting meaning will be of a negative meaning " wrong " ) - a negative and a positive makes a negative. This is interesting but shows that there exist inconsistencies in our language.
拿以下的問題為例:「這句子是錯的，是或否？」如果我們說是，那句子便是錯的了。反之，如果我們說否，那句子便是對的了。這樣一來，無論我們說是或否，都會產生邏輯上的謬誤。原 因在於那個錯字，是有負面的意思，而是與否兩者，卻分別帶着正面和負面的意思。由於這句子是自我參照句，即是說它只是針對自己，沒有涉及句子以外的事物。 這樣，如果我們說否，否字和錯字都是負面的意思，於是負負得正，便得到相反的正確那意思。假如我們說是字，這則有正面的意思，而錯字卻有負面意思，這樣一 來，正負便得負，所以句子便有錯的意思，這也正是其原本字面的意思。以上的情況，十分有趣，但比較罕見，卻證明了我們日常所用的語言，當中確是存在着一些 邏輯上的謬誤，切記為上策！


JKHC ( 鄭冠合 )