# Prove that red is a color

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-that-red-is-a-color/153184>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [February 6, 2003, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-that-red-is-a-color/153184 "2003-02-06T13:15:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-that-red-is-a-color/153184/61 "2003-02-07T22:00:29Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by erislover \*  
> \*\*No one but **Vorlon** and similar detractors seem to conflate “possible” with “exists” in any other context, so I don’t see why it suddenly makes an appearance here. If so, it certainly isn’t there because of the semantics of modal logic. \*\*

I should respond to this: when I compared “possible” to “exists” earlier, I was comparing modal logic to binary (?) logic, in which things either are true or false, with no “possible” middle ground.

Daniel

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-that-red-is-a-color/153184/62 "2003-02-07T22:16:57Z")

</div>

If you check Stanford’s site they make the comparison to propositional logic operations “for all” and “there is some” as they relate to necessity and possibility. I’d copy and paste but they use images for the operators and I don’t know how to make sure the symbols will end up here correctly.

[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-modal/](http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-modal/)  
Second part (“2. Modal Logics”), second paragraph, which starts “The operator \<\>…” explains it. Perhaps this is where the problem is coming in is in looking at the operators differently?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-that-red-is-a-color/153184/63 "2003-02-08T00:12:36Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Beeblebrox \*  
> \*\*What’s in a definition? A rose by any other definition would smell as sweet. Unless thou is defining thine Aunt Rose, who smells overly of lilacs. \*\*

Pete Rose doesn’t smell of lilacs, but then again, he’s not my Auntie. :eek:

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-that-red-is-a-color/153184.md?page=3)