早兩天在臉書見到一位朋友貼出英國哲學家
G. E. M. Anscombe 的一段文字：
"Think
of the English sentence 'If you can eat any fish, you can eat any fish', which
sounds like a tautology, but is, on the contrary, a false judgment. Any native
English-speaker will understand that sentence: few could explain how it
works." (An Introduction to Wittgenstein's
Tractatus, pp.140-141)
為方便論述，以下我會用
'(E)' 來代表 'If you can eat any fish, you can eat any fish'。
我看過這段文字後，大感疑惑。首先，我自己的直覺判斷是
(E) 為真；此外，我懷疑是否任何 native English-speaker 都會如 Anscombe 所言，判斷 (E) 為假。在 (E) 裏，'you
can eat any fish' 出現了兩次，假如兩次表達的意思都一樣，(E) 便明顯地為真；要判斷 (E) 為假，便須要將這兩個 'you can eat
any fish' 理解為不同的意思，問題是，這真的會是 native English-speakers 感到最自然的理解嗎？
Anscombe
是 native English-speaker，也是出色的哲學家，是維根斯坦最有名的學生，這段文字亦權威語氣十足，然而，這些事實都不能稍減我的疑惑。於是，我決定做一個小小的驗證，找我認識的
native English-speakers 作調查對象，看看他們怎樣判斷 (E)。
我先後問了四十人，向他們展示
(E) 之前，我先強調這不是甚麼哲學或邏輯難題，他們只須要根據最直接自然的理解，判斷我展示的句子是否為真。結果是二十六人判斷 (E) 為真，只有十四人判斷
(E) 為假。
Anscombe
認為任何 native English-speaker 都會判斷 (E) 為假，那是錯的，不過，她認為判斷 (E) 為假的人很少能夠 "explain
how it works"，卻似乎是說對了。那十四個判斷 (E) 為假的人之中，只有一個能夠清楚解釋他為何這樣判斷：他將第一個 'you can
eat any fish' 理解為 'any fish is edible'（「任何魚都是可吃的」），將第二個 'you can eat any fish' 理解為
'you are in a position to eat any fish' （「你可以吃到任何魚」）。其他判斷 (E) 為假的人未必這樣理解，而這個理解亦不見得是最自然的。
這個小驗證還有些有趣的資料：那四十人之中有十一人是在大學教哲學的，十一人之中只有一個判斷
(E) 為假；其餘二十九人都是我的學生，其中六人主修哲學，六人之中也是只有一個判斷 (E) 為假；餘下的二十三個學生中，判斷 (E) 為假的卻比判斷 (E) 為真的稍多
--- 十二比十一。讀哲學的大比數不同意 Anscombe 的看法，何解？
在這個小驗證裏，我問的
native English-speakers 都是美國人；Anscombe 是英國人，她說的 "native English-speakers" 會不會只是指英國人？這點我不得而知。假如讀者中有英國朋友眾多者，對這問題有興趣的，不妨也做個類似的小驗證，說不定會有另一些有趣的發現。
會不會是類似中文的這個意思:
回覆刪除"如果你能夠吃任何魚的話，你可以(去)吃任何魚"。
補充一下:
刪除就如類似中文講的：“如果你能夠唱歌，你可以唱歌”；“如果你能夠跳舞，你可以跳舞”；
If you can sing, you can sing.
If you can dance, you can dance.
至於有什麼哲學含義，那就要請教王Sir了。
因為 can 有兩個不盡相同的意思：能夠，可以。這兩個意思應該說是相近但也不盡相同。
刪除有聽過一些西人朋友講：You can do, you can do; you can not do, you can not do". 他們當時給我的感覺是：如果你能做的話你就做，否則也不用勉強，因為那沒有什麼大不了的事。
就如之前的例子說的如果你能夠唱歌的話你可以唱歌，但如果你不能夠唱歌的話，也無需勉強，因為那並沒有什麼大不了的事。
有趣！
回覆刪除I know you can eat my fish, but you cannot.
回覆刪除說不定現時的 native English-speaker 和當年的，看法也會有不同。用字會隨時代改變。
分歧不一定只在 "can", 還有在 "any"，
回覆刪除e.g. "if you can do anything, you can do anything", even if I can do something here, I can't do all kinds of things.
我猜她不是向native speaker 展示E，而是讀出E。如讀的時候兩個can發音不一樣，聽者很容易便會聽出讀的一方在imply 兩句的意思不同。
回覆刪除她只是在文章裏寫出，應該接近展示多於讀出。
刪除That's interesting. The statistics is...hmmm... somewhat surprising to me. But with so many people in the sample having a philosophy (or logic?) background, it maybe biased. Wait. Maybe not. See below, especially for the question I'd like to ask Wong.
回覆刪除Disclaimer: I'm not a native English speaker. And the limited English I know is mostly American English. So, don't sue me if I've got it wrong. Haha.
Having said that, I will give my 2 cents:
If one looks at the sentence and reads it as "if A then A," it certainly sounds like a tautology. (Or E is true as a tautology.) But we are not doing logic here and probably some people would not interpret it like that. Even with some math background I would not read it as such when dealing with everyday language, which is very fuzzy at times.
Now then, how would I interpret it, giving the benefit of doubt to the speaker, that (s)he is probably not saying some empty words?
I would interpret the first any as one (in random, or even a particular one) and the second as (any of) all (the others) .
So, I will read it as: If you can eat one (or this, or this yucky, or whatnot) fish you can eat any of all the other fish. Whether this is a false judgment (statement?) or not, or if it is even a statmeent (see the sentence I've made up below, I wouldn't call it a statement in that context), I will leave it to philosophers.
Oh, a question. Wong, did you ask the people who said E is true how they interpreted the sentence? They may have interpreted it in a way like how I would interpret it or some other ways and still thought E was true, but not as in a tautology.
An "example" I've just made up: A sergeant told one of his soldiers (who seemed "weak") before they engaged the enemies, "If you can kill any man you can kill any man."
Some meanings of any from m-w.com:
1
: one or some indiscriminately of whatever kind:
a : one or another taken at random
b : every —used to indicate one selected without restriction
2
: one, some, or all indiscriminately of whatever quantity:
a : one or more —used to indicate an undetermined number or amount
b : all —used to indicate a maximum or whole
c : a or some without reference to quantity or extent
3
a : unmeasured or unlimited in amount, number, or extent
b : appreciably large or extended
--zpdrmn
"did you ask the people who said E is true how they interpreted the sentence? "
刪除- They thought it's tautological.