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Chris -- 2018-04-11
‘Pausible’ is a respectable if mildly uncommon word, meaning, ‘capable of being paused.’ (Computer scientists like to talk about pausible threads, streams and processes.) It also gets used as a substitute for ‘plausible,’ for ‘possible,’ and to say something in-between those two. Plausible ideas and inferences are likely, reasonable, or possessed of face-validity, but ‘plausible’ is also used in contrast to ‘certain.’ Merely plausible ideas, that is, give one pause. Examples:
“Is This Law Of Physics Pausible?
answers.yahoo.com.au/question/index?qid=20080308123908AAPAIei
Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems: Networks of Pausible Inference, Revised 2nd Printing (Paperback).
thattechnicalbookstore.com/book.aspx?isbn=1558604790&cp=0
“Class action lawsuit against the church, pausible?”
answers.yahoo.com.au/question/index?qid=20080129142514AADeKb0
And it doesn’t seem pausible that Jericho would fly into a rage unless Goldberg said SOMETHING. I’m engaging in conjecture here, trying to guess …
the-w.com/thread.php/id=11236&page=2
Is it pausible that a super-volcanic feature exist on Mars? If so, is it then pausible that highly compressed gas exists in underground chambers or magnma …
www.marsnews.com/archives/2005/02/03/be … e_gas.html
I was trained as a physicist, so my thought is, “Okay, that’s a pausible explanation for how the Solar System evolved? www.poynter.org/article_feedback/articl … =&id=75050
Last edited by klakritz (2008-03-19 21:54:09)
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My feeling is that the questions, e.g. “Is This Law Of Physics Pausible?” is incompatible with the plausible-idea-that-gives-one-pause notion, simply because I can’t imagine anyone thinking “Does this law of physics give you pause?” or “Does it give you pause that a super-volcanic feature exist(s) on Mars?” in the context given.
And I have to admit that anyone trained as a physicist has to be familiar with the plausible, and so the last example is most certainly a misspelling or a joke.
“Let’s not get bogged down in semantics.”—Homer Simpson to Gary Coleman
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