JACQUES ROUBAUD—Go on.
—If I believe that I believe wrongly that it is raining,
In other words if I believe that it is raining even though it is not the case that it
is raining,
It follows that I believe that I believe it is raining
And at the same time that it is not the case that it is raining.
And it thus follows that I simultaneously believe that it is raining
And that it is
Not. But given that no one has ever at the same time believed that it was raining
and that it was not, it is impossible that I believe that I believe that it is
raining
Knowing full well that it is not.
—To be sure.
—And yet I believe it.
—You believe what?In any event, it is raining.
—richard sieburth and françoise gramet
The Past
She said to him: ‘‘It is very nice out.’’
Therefore
it was nice out.
If it is nice out, it is not necessarily very nice out.
If she had said ‘‘it is nice out’’
could he have understood that she had, as it were,
potentially
said
‘‘it is nice out, but it is not very nice out’’?
No.
‘‘It is nice out’’ would not have signaled any reservations on her part.
But neither would he have heard in her
‘‘it is nice out’’
(if she had said ‘‘it is nice out’’)
‘‘it is nice out, it is even very nice out.’’
‘‘It is nice out’’
would not have signaled
any insistance
on her part.
All the same if, having said ‘‘it is nice out’’