Negating "All". Need help with negations.

Comments

• Jonathan Wang Yearly Sage ⭐

  April 2014 edited April 2014 6874 karma

  If I tell you that not all apples are delicious, is that the same as saying there isn't a single apple that is delicious ("none" of the apples are delicious)? How many apples are we 100% sure are not delicious when "not all" of them are?
• ClaudiaH Alum Member

  April 2014 9 karma

  Exactly! So let's say the case is "All apples are delicious."
  
  "Some apples are not delicious" is not the same as "None of the apples are delicious." Why isn't the binary cut of "all" "none?" You know, all or nothing?
• 2 Likes

  Jonathan Wang Yearly Sage ⭐

  April 2014 6874 karma

  Let's say the negation of 'all' was 'none'. You've now accounted for two possibilities - exactly 100% and exactly 0%. What about all the stuff in the middle? Are we just ignoring it?
  
  Review the lesson on negations and how they differ from opposites. You're basically taking an opposite and then asking why it's not a negation. Put simply, it's the difference between saying "none" (the opposite of all) versus "not all" (the negation of all). The answer, though unsatisfying, is very simply that the two concepts have different definitions.
• ClaudiaH Alum Member

  April 2014 9 karma

  I think I got confused with All-->Most-->Some but I understand now that it's not All=Most=Some. The reason that it is implied is because the "all" point 100 intersects with the range of "most" and the range of "some" but it does not include 0-99. Thank you, Jonathan!
• hannamz Alum Member

  April 2014 3 karma

  Does "Some... not" include zero?