If I say "everything is made up of atoms" does that mean "made up of atoms" is a meaningless category?
Since the statement 'everything is made up of atoms' is false for the commonly defined meaning of 'everything', it could be concluded that 'made up of atoms' has become a meaningfull category since it is in fact the limiting factor rather than the 'everything'. So what you have just said is 'everything that is made up of atoms is made up of atoms' hence it is a tautology and rather un-useful information, which could well be what people mean when they say 'meaningless'.
In the unlikely event that you can come up with a true statement that everything is X for the normal definitions of 'X' and 'everything' then no, it does not preclude that some things will be more X than others. However, this could probably only occur in the course of a discussion in which 'everything' has already been delimited and defined quite narrowly into a sense other than the general 'everything'. Hence it is possible that your problem (I'm assuming you are having a misunderstanding with someone) arises because you are in fact working from two different definitions of 'everything' and are not aware of it.
I think it is unlikely you are insane, but I am not a qualified medical practitioner ;o)
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Date: 2008-02-23 03:36 pm (UTC)Since the statement 'everything is made up of atoms' is false for the commonly defined meaning of 'everything', it could be concluded that 'made up of atoms' has become a meaningfull category since it is in fact the limiting factor rather than the 'everything'. So what you have just said is 'everything that is made up of atoms is made up of atoms' hence it is a tautology and rather un-useful information, which could well be what people mean when they say 'meaningless'.
In the unlikely event that you can come up with a true statement that everything is X for the normal definitions of 'X' and 'everything' then no, it does not preclude that some things will be more X than others. However, this could probably only occur in the course of a discussion in which 'everything' has already been delimited and defined quite narrowly into a sense other than the general 'everything'. Hence it is possible that your problem (I'm assuming you are having a misunderstanding with someone) arises because you are in fact working from two different definitions of 'everything' and are not aware of it.
I think it is unlikely you are insane, but I am not a qualified medical practitioner ;o)