On The Algebra of Logic (1885)
Context: I have taken pains to make my distinction of icons, indices, and tokens clear, in order to enunciate this proposition: in a perfect system of logical notation signs of these several kinds must all be employed. Without tokens there would be no generality in the statements, for they are the only general signs; and generality is essential to reasoning. … But tokens alone do not state what is the subject of discourse; and this can, in fact, not be described in general terms; it can only be indicated. The actual world cannot be distinguished from a world of imagination by any description. Hence the need of pronoun and indices, and the more complicated the subject the greater the need of them.
“The more chaotic the world, the greater the need for ritual.”
Source: Wagers of Sin (1996), Chapter 7 (p. 156)
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Robert Lynn Asprin 38
American science fiction and fantasy author 1946–2008Related quotes
Source: 1980 to Roy Jenkins < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHk9zoG6PXw
"Do Liberals Have an Answer to Trump on Foreign Policy?" (March 2017)
"The Mindscape of Alan Moore" (2003)
Context: The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic. The truth is, that it is not the Jewish banking conspiracy or the grey aliens or the 12 foot reptiloids from another dimension that are in control. The truth is more frightening, nobody is in control. The world is rudderless.
“The real world is made from open, interacting systems, behaving chaotically.”
D.K. Hitchins (2000) World Class Systems Engineering - the five layer Model; cited in: Neville A. Stanton, Chris Baber, Don Harris (2012) Modelling Command and Control. p. 8
Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 5, Introducing falsification, p. 67.