learnedax ([personal profile] learnedax) wrote2007-10-23 03:37 pm

Why Bertrand Russell slept alone

I will only date those date all those and only those who do not meet their own dating criteria. Can I date someone who shares this trait?

[identity profile] londo.livejournal.com 2007-10-23 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Straight people of opposite sexes can date each other, so... yes.

[identity profile] learnedax.livejournal.com 2007-10-23 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Er, right. Failure of brain - I'll just edit the problem statement there...

[identity profile] goldsquare.livejournal.com 2007-10-23 08:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh give me a clone,
of my own flesh and bone,
with the Y chromosome changed to X.
And when I'm at home,
with the clone of my own,
we'll be thinking of nothing but sex.
-- Isaac Asimov

[identity profile] xiphias.livejournal.com 2007-10-23 08:10 pm (UTC)(link)
No. Setting aside the criterion under discussion, you, personally, either meet your own dating criteria or you do not.

If you do not meet the other criteria, then the identical persona also does not meet the other criteria, so you may not date him.

If you DO meet the other criteria, then so does he -- and therefore you meet HIS criteria. Hence, since you meet his criteria, HE meets his his criteria, which means that you may not date him.

[identity profile] hfcougar.livejournal.com 2007-10-23 09:28 pm (UTC)(link)
So I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me...

[identity profile] peregrinning.livejournal.com 2007-10-24 12:39 am (UTC)(link)
Mmmm. That's not what he said.

Dating those who don't meet their own dating criteria isn't the same as dating those who don't meet your own dating criteria.

If a small thin plain smart woman wants to date a large thick stunning dense man, she does not meet her criteria, but can find people who do meet her criteria.

If the "person who said this quote" happened to be large, thick, stunning, dense, and male, he could date the small thin plain smart woman, as she does not meet her own dating criteria, which means she meets the "person who said this quote's" dating criteria, and he meets her criteria.

[identity profile] xiphias.livejournal.com 2007-10-24 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
Great. He changed the statement again. When I answered this, he finished with "Can I date someone identical to myself."

[identity profile] xiphias.livejournal.com 2007-10-24 12:47 am (UTC)(link)
You've changed your statement again.

Now, the question is, "does 'do not meet their own dating criteria'" mean "within the set of their dating criteria, there exists at least one criterion which they do not meet", or does it mean, "within the set of their own dating criteria, there exists NO criterion which they meet."

If the former statement, the answer is obviously "yes". Assume, for instance, that you are a heterosexual male, and the potential person is a heterosexual female. You do not meet your own dating criteria, she does not meet her own dating criteria, therefore you both exhibit the quality of not meeting your own dating criteria, and therefore you meet each others' dating criteria.

If, however, the statement is that you may meet NONE of your own dating criteria, well, you DO meet the criteria of not dating anyone who meets your own criteria, and therefore, someone else who shares that trait would NOT date you, and vice versa.

[identity profile] peregrinning.livejournal.com 2007-10-24 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
Arrgh. Shifting sands...
ext_104661: (Default)

[identity profile] alexx-kay.livejournal.com 2007-10-24 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
I have seen that attributed to Randall Garrett pretty often, but I haven't got any definitive source handy. A quick google turned up this, but I don't know if it's accurate.

[identity profile] goldsquare.livejournal.com 2007-10-24 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
Well, that's what they told me when I was taught it in HS. I think. Old brains get weird.

[identity profile] learnedax.livejournal.com 2007-10-24 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
It was really only in flux for about 3 minutes, just apparently the wrong 3. I was trying to clarify ambiguous language which I had framed with certain original assumptions built in, e.g. "dates only X" meant "will date any within X and no others", as an implicit IFF.

I really hadn't initially been as logically rigorous as possible, because I thought the informal statement would be sufficiently reminiscent of Russell's. Ah, well.

[identity profile] gyzki.livejournal.com 2007-10-24 11:42 am (UTC)(link)
By the time you and Bertrand have finished stating the question, much less figuring out the answer, I'll have dated several supermodels, kbithx.
laurion: (Default)

[personal profile] laurion 2007-10-24 01:42 pm (UTC)(link)
No. There's now way you could date that many people. You've not even met most of them. There's a problem here with the usage of the phrase 'I will date all'.

Scratching that portion of the phrase and stating 'I will date only those who do not meet their own dating criteria', then you should be fine. Most dating criteria include dating someone who is not oneself, because that is the notion of dating. So no one meets their own criteria.

[identity profile] learnedax.livejournal.com 2007-10-24 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Haha, funny.