Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Quiz on "... or ..."

I am holding out to you my two closed fists. Let us suppose that I know that you know that I know which, if any, of my fists are empty and which are full (for simplicity, I take "full" to be the denial of "empty"). You don't know which, if any, of my fists are empty and which are full. In which of the following cases would I be telling you a lie if I said: "My left hand is full or my right hand is full" while competently using English? (Choose "depends" if you think the answer depends on factors that I didn't include in the description of the case.)

  1. In fact my left hand is full and my right hand is full: lie not a lie depends don't know
  2. In fact my left hand is empty and my right hand is full: lie not a lie depends don't know
  3. In fact my left hand is full and my right hand is empty: lie not a lie depends don't know
  4. In fact my left hand is empty and my right hand is empty: lie not a lie depends don't know

1 comment:

Alexander R Pruss said...

Stats so far:

Quiz answers so far

Saying 'My left hand is full or my right hand is full' is or is not a lie when:

left is full, right is full? 23.1% lie, 48.1% not a lie, 23.1% depends, 5.8% don't know (52 respondents)
left is empty, right is full? 1.9% lie, 98.1% not a lie, 0% depends, 0% don't know (52 respondents)
left is full, right is empty? 3.8% lie, 96.2% not a lie, 0% depends, 0% don't know (52 respondents)
left is empty, right is empty? 100% lie, 0% not a lie, 0% depends, 0% don't know (53 respondents)