True and False Statements in Fiction
In the Russellian system, the statement “Long John Silver has a wooden leg” and the statement “Long John Silver was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London” have the same truth value: false. This equality may present problems for those wishing to distinguish such statements in terms of truth value.
Read more about this topic: Fictional Beings And Reference Failure
Famous quotes containing the words true, false, statements and/or fiction:
“The third day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Three French hens,”
—Unknown. The Twelve Days of Christmas (l. 8–10)
“History is nothing but a procession of false Absolutes, a series of temples raised to pretexts, a degradation of the mind before the Improbable.”
—E.M. Cioran (b. 1911)
“A sentence is made up of words, a statement is made in words.... Statements are made, words or sentences are used.”
—J.L. (John Langshaw)
“If there were genders to genres, fiction would be unquestionably feminine.”
—William Gass (b. 1924)