What does If rattlesnakes are poisonous, they are dangerous. mean?

Is this "If, as you say, rattlesnakes are poisonous"?
(Because all rattlesnakes have poison)

Answers

redtsuru

8 Mar 2021

Featured answer

English (US)

This is a puzzling sentence because as you correctly note
ALL rattlesnakes have venom ( venom = poison).
So all rattlesnakes are dangerous.

The sentence: “IF rattlesnakes are poisonous .... “ is a FALSE one - since they ARE poisonous.

I think this sentence is just wrong.
Someone made a mistake when they wrote it.

Highly-rated answerer

Was this answer helpful?

Share this question

Copy URL

redtsuru

8 Mar 2021

English (US)

This is a puzzling sentence because as you correctly note
ALL rattlesnakes have venom ( venom = poison).
So all rattlesnakes are dangerous.

The sentence: “IF rattlesnakes are poisonous .... “ is a FALSE one - since they ARE poisonous.

I think this sentence is just wrong.
Someone made a mistake when they wrote it.

Highly-rated answerer

Was this answer helpful?

Kawagu-cchan

8 Mar 2021

Japanese

@redtsuru
Thanks.
There are similar expressions.... :

1 If snakes are poisonous, they are dangerous.
2 Because snakes are poisonous, they are dangerous.
I think 1 only refers to some, not all, of the snakes in this world, because not all snakes are poisonous. Snakes might or might not be poisonous. But I feel the latter odd because the sentence entails all, not some, of the snakes in the world are poisonous.

3. If rattlesnakes are poisonous, they are dangerous.
4. Because rattlesnakes are poisonous, they are dangerous.
On the other hand, 3 refers to all of the rattlesnakes in this world. Rattlesnakes are poisonous. Therefore, "if" in 3 , unlike that in 1, echoes the utterance, rather than provide a condition (Child: Dad! This book says rattlesnakes are poisonous! Dad: My boy, if , as you say, rattlesnakes are poisonous, they are dangerous).
4 also refers to all of the rattlesnakes in this world.

Do you agree with each hypothesis?

redtsuru

8 Mar 2021

English (US)

No.

In logic ( mathematics):
If a then b. is NOT the same as: if b than a

Same thing is true in English.

**
If snakes are poisonous = in English this CAN mean if a snake is poisonous than it is dangerous.
This sentence does not mean ALL snakes.

If you want to say ALL snakes - then you need to say:
If all snakes are poisonous..... BUT this is a FALSE statement.

#3 sentence is FALSE. ie not true.
#4 sentence is TRUE

With your example with the child-
the Father’s statement is not very logical.....

*
You can create FALSE statements when you ignor the meaning of the words = not a good idea!
Example: If gravity makes buildings fly in the air, then buildings are light as a feather.
Not true, not true!

Highly-rated answerer

Was this answer helpful?

Kawagu-cchan

8 Mar 2021

Japanese

@redtsuru
Thank you♫ Let me make a clarification...
I didn't mean to express a meaning like "than". (You meant to write "then"?)

・"Because"　refers to all of the snakes? (So, 2 is FAULSE in the light of our knowledge)
・1 is TRUE iff one snake or a group of snakes having poison is/are taken into inference.

As for 3, I have learned that we can quote someone's utterance and embed it within a if-clause. Thus:
1. "I didn't do that"- if you did not do that, that must have been Tom.

3 is felt to be somewhat wrong as you say.
Assuming that what I leaned is right, we will have a different effect from the sentence:

2. If, as you say, snakes are poisonous, we'd better see a doctor.
(In this case, it seems that "snakes" here is ambiguous as to whether it refers to all snakes or some of the snakes or a single individual if the speaker is not familiar to reptile knowledge)

How about this?
3. If rattlesnakes are poisonous, we'd better see a doctor to get a serum.

If we forcedly paraphrased this sentence, what paraphrase could we get?
I might say:
4. If, as this book says, all of the rattlesnakes are poisonous, we'd better see a doctor to get a serum.