this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
112 points (96.7% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27062 readers
2520 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

At work we somehow landed on the topic of how many holes a human has, which then evolved into a heated discussion on the classic question of how many holes does a straw have.

I think it's two, but some people are convinced that it's one, which I just don't understand. What are your thoughts?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm seeing a lot of this kind of taxonomical argument relying on material being removed, but it's not convincing. A taxonomical argument that relies on commonly accepted definitions, but does not include commonly accepted examples, is logically flawed.

It's normal, accepted usage to describe your anus and so forth as holes, despite no material having been removed.

Similarly, it's normal to describe Cheerios as having holes in the middle, or bagels as having holes in the middle, or a pool noodle as having a hole through it, or any number of similar things that are formed without any material being removed. It extends to the metaphysical, in fact; one can have a hole in their logic, for instance, without the implications that their logic must once have contained this item, until it was somehow removed.

A hole is an entirely contained negative space; I don't think it requires anything to have been removed.