You made me realize this is actually pretty common in math, e.g. "Let x, y be real numbers" instead of "Let x and y be real numbers". I imagine this comes from the infuence of notation like "Let x, y ∈ ℝ".
loppy
joined 1 year ago
Well, Con(PA) is a "natural" statement I'd say, and ZFC proves Con(PA).
No one, and I mean absolutely no one, "truly" "thinks in words", even people who have a constant running narrative in their head. The reason is simple: How can you choose words/form sentences without any prior thought/idea that those words describe? How can you "struggle to find the right words" if your thoughts are originally in words (an experience I assume everyone has had)?
Linguistically, the difference between "he died" and "he's dead" is called aspect. As for your specific sentences:
"I thought he died" -> There was some event that ocurred which I witnessed or which I was made aware of in someway which I thought had resulted in him dieing.
"I thought he was dead" -> My understanding was that for some time up to now he was a corpse (or in some other such state). I do not necessarily know about the time or event in which he died.