Response to And on Names

[Guy Steele <cbmvax!uunet!THINK.COM!cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu!gls>]

   Date:         Fri, 14 Feb 1992 23:50:48 -0500
   From: Logical Language Group <lojbab%GREBYN.COM@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu>
   ...
   Now it is perfectly possible for me the speaker to be talking about all
   the people named Bob by anyone when I say "lai bab.", but you could
   never tell the difference, because something true of a mass component is
   generally considered true of the greater mass.

As it happens, my daughter and I had a debate about this
very thing yesterday.  I commented, "It's a small world."
And she held up a grain of sand and said, "No, *this* is
small--the world is big."  So then we considered the
following argument:

The grass is green, and that tree is green, and many
others plants are green; the world has many plants,
so overall the world is green.

The ground here is wet (it had just rained), and
clouds are wet, and the oceans are wet, so overall
the world is wet.

And this grain of sand is small, and insects are small,
and there are many other small things in the world,
so overall the world is small.

--Guy