Thirty or more
Posted by Fred on December 03, 2003
In Reply to: Thirty or more posted by Henry on December 03, 2003
: : what does this mean:
: : "she's thirty if sh's a day"??????
: It means that, as she is certainly more than a day old, she is certainly thirty years old, or more.
I think that the person who says 'She's thirty if she's a day' is really
giving an enthymematic argument. The suppressed premise is 'She's certainly
a day old.' The suppressed conclusion of the argument is 'She's certainly
at least thirty years old.' Logicians use "modus ponens" to refer to this
logically impeccable form of argumentation: T if D; D; so T.