Still trying to wrap my head around how a partial ordering plays out here. I think it’s fair to say that for any such nonempty spectrum, there exists at least one person about whom it can be said: “nobody is gayer than they are.” Right? (even if 1 or more people are equally gay…)
Its the difference between maximum gayness and maximal gayness. Maximum gayness is being more gay, or at least as gay, as everybody else; while maximal gayness is not being less gay than anybody else (just as you put it). Two people with maximal gayness can have incomparable gaynessess, and thats the key thing about partial orderings, this possibility of incomparability.
there could be many maximally gay people. they wouldnt be equally gay, but incomparably gay.
As long as we can put an upper bound on gayness (or more specifically on each totally ordered subset of people under the is-gayer-than relation) this follows from Zorn’s lemma.
It’s also true by virtue of the fact that the set of all people who will have ever lived is finite, but “the existence of a maximal element in a poset” just screams Zorn’s lemma.
Sure, there may be a maximal element, but not necessarily a maximum (there might be multiple people of equal and maximal gayness, not just one person).
Also, not relevent to the logic here per se, but last time this went around the conclusion was that a spectrum implies a total order, not just partial.
I’m only familiar with “spectrum” from linear algebra (spectral theory), but I’m not sure that’s how people intend to use the word “spectrum” in this context haha.
Still trying to wrap my head around how a partial ordering plays out here. I think it’s fair to say that for any such nonempty spectrum, there exists at least one person about whom it can be said: “nobody is gayer than they are.” Right? (even if 1 or more people are equally gay…)
Its the difference between maximum gayness and maximal gayness. Maximum gayness is being more gay, or at least as gay, as everybody else; while maximal gayness is not being less gay than anybody else (just as you put it). Two people with maximal gayness can have incomparable gaynessess, and thats the key thing about partial orderings, this possibility of incomparability. there could be many maximally gay people. they wouldnt be equally gay, but incomparably gay.
Like Rattrap and Dinobot?
I hate you in so many ways right now.
As long as we can put an upper bound on gayness (or more specifically on each totally ordered subset of people under the is-gayer-than relation) this follows from Zorn’s lemma.
It’s also true by virtue of the fact that the set of all people who will have ever lived is finite, but “the existence of a maximal element in a poset” just screams Zorn’s lemma.
I think it’s better to avoid the axiom of choice in discussions about sexuality, as it seems to upset the conservatives.
Sure, there may be a maximal element, but not necessarily a maximum (there might be multiple people of equal and maximal gayness, not just one person).
Also, not relevent to the logic here per se, but last time this went around the conclusion was that a spectrum implies a total order, not just partial.
I’m only familiar with “spectrum” from linear algebra (spectral theory), but I’m not sure that’s how people intend to use the word “spectrum” in this context haha.
Thanks, I’m gonna have to take a closer look at this later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorn’s_lemma
Talking about the amount of alternatives doesn’t specify how many elements are contained in an alternative.