PHI 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Nelson Goodman, If And Only If
Document Summary
The paradox of grue; attempts to identify what is wrong with grue. Principle (g1): a generalization is confirmed by any of its instances. Say i observe 1000 emeralds: e1, e2, etc: all thousand emeralds are green, emerald e1 is green, emerald e2 is green. According to (g1), my observations of the emeralds confirm that all emeralds are green. Sainsbury (p. 99) introduces the term grue created by the philosopher nelson goodman in his book fact, fiction and forecast (1955): X is grue if x is green and has been examined or x is blue and has not been examined. In goodman"s formulation, there is an explicit reference to time: X is grue if either (i) x is green and has been examined before the year 2020 or (ii) x is blue and has not been examined before the year 2020. Principle (g1) & grue: a generalization is confirmed by any of its instances.
