November 17

Tom points out that no experiments are needed to show that the counterfactual conditional is different. The system of that sentential logic is one way of interpreting English sentences, but logicians recognize that English is far more complicated. Sentential fails to capture all the shades and nuances of English: irony, sarcasm, invective, and so on. The point is that the English meaning of ``If McCain had won in 2008, then Joe Biden would have been vice president'' is not the meaning in Sentential, and logicians knew that before the time machine was invented. Click here.