What would be the context of the comment, and what sense of “equal” is implied?
Suppose lukeprog put it in the ancestral post.
For instance, I probably wouldn’t object to someone saying “men and women are equal” if it was clear from the context that they meant “men and women should have equal rights”. On the other hand, there are a variety of well-documented statistical differences between men and women, and trying to deny some of those might be harmful.
“Clear from the context” seems like the heart of the matter, here. If it can be clear from the context that when someone says “men and women are equal,” then mean the most sensible interpretation, then it seems similarly clear that a generalization with neither “some” nor “all” specified should be assumed to mean “some,” not “all.”
That’s still insufficient context: to be able to give a definite answer, I’d need something like the paragraph the sentence was contained in.
“Clear from the context” seems like the heart of the matter, here. If it can be clear from the context that when someone says “men and women are equal,” then mean the most sensible interpretation, then it seems similarly clear that a generalization wither neither “some” nor “all” specified should be assumed to mean “some,” not “all.”
Indeed. For what it’s worth, my prior for people misinterpreting “men and women are equal” is lower, though still not neglible, than my prior for people misinterpreting “all men want”. But again, depending on the context either interpretation for either sentence could be blindingly obvious, not obvious at all, or anything in between.
Suppose lukeprog put it in the ancestral post.
“Clear from the context” seems like the heart of the matter, here. If it can be clear from the context that when someone says “men and women are equal,” then mean the most sensible interpretation, then it seems similarly clear that a generalization with neither “some” nor “all” specified should be assumed to mean “some,” not “all.”
That’s still insufficient context: to be able to give a definite answer, I’d need something like the paragraph the sentence was contained in.
Indeed. For what it’s worth, my prior for people misinterpreting “men and women are equal” is lower, though still not neglible, than my prior for people misinterpreting “all men want”. But again, depending on the context either interpretation for either sentence could be blindingly obvious, not obvious at all, or anything in between.