But it's only a problem if you phrase it in such a way. The student could just as easily come up with the rule that AKHTBNiff there are no yellow queens or yellow pawns, and you could not disprove that. A first-time student might have a problem with the words "all the yellow pyramids are mediums," but not necessarily the concept behind it.
On 1/4/07, Brian McCue <brianmccue22312@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
More generally, a potentially difficult point in Zendo (and other realms) is "vacuous
fulfillment," of which an example would be furnished by the BN "... all the yellow
pyramids are mediums": does a Koan with no yellow pyramids qualify?
Most mathematicians and computer programmers would say that it does, since there are
no non-medium yellows present. However, it has been my observation that people
encountering this idea of "vacuous fulfillment" for the first time often choke on
it, and I would not want anybody's first-time choke to occur when they were playing
in a Zendo game that I was Mastering.
Brian
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