James asked:

Is the following argument true by definition, false by definition, a comment on my direct experience, or
ultimately unknowable?

1. All statements are one of the following:

— true by definition

— false by definition

— a comment on my direct experience

— ultimately unknowable.

2. "A cat is a cat" is true by definition.

3. "A cat is not a cat" is false by definition.

4. "My desk looks brown to me" is a comment on my direct experience.

5. "The planet Jupiter is larger than my hand" is ultimately unknowable, as no matter how strong the
evidence is that I use to decide whether the statement is true, there always remains the logical
possibility that I will later find even stronger evidence to point to the contrary.

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I would say that 'what follows' (that is, the propositions 1 to 5) is not an argument at all, but merely a
set of 5 assertions. The first make an assertion that all statements fall into one of the four listed
classes, while 2-5 give examples of the classes (though it must be said that within statement 5, there
is an argument that the purported example is of the type asserted). My guess is that you are being
asked to construct an argument of your own, which will try to establish that the statement 1 is itself of
one of the types it proposes.

If it fitted into the second type, it would be useless, so you can rule that out. So you are left with three
possibilities: that the compound statement (1) is true in virtue of the meanings of the words that make
it up, is based on your experience of statements (and hence might or might not be true), or cannot be
known to be true (which makes it merely an educated guess, and could be — you might argue —
therefore equivalent to the previous type).

Alternatively, you could try to find a statement that does not fit any of the four types. That would show
that compound statement (1) is false.

Tim Sprod

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