Conditional Reasoning

[Dancingbambarina]

I am wandering with conditionality, would saying "Houses are blue" be conditional or is it not strong enough? Would saying "Houses in this neighborhood are blue" be conditional? Or would this sentence need "All houses in this neighborhood". Would the "Houses" on its own not qualify as conditional becasue it could be one (please confirm a plural could be inferred as one) or more houses but not ALL?

Merry Christmas!

[Dancingbambarina]

Hi,

I understand with conditionals, the necessary is required, but do they all boil down to meaning "ONLY" ?

I ask because with "unless", I have seen it be taken as "ONLY", but surely "MUST", "REQUIRED" etc. do not mean "ONLY" ?

I ask becasue it greatly affects how one interprets the specific conditionals.

Thanks very much!

[Adam Tyson]

Your example statements could be viewed as conditional, although you shouldn't force conditionality onto every statement that could be expressed that way.

"Houses are blue" is a general statement about all houses, so you could treat it just the same as "all houses are blue" or "if something is a house, then it is blue." Of course, this doesn't mean they are ONLY blue. Maybe there are blue houses with white trim? With black roofs? With red doors? But you could also say "a thing is a house only if it is blue."

You could narrow the category down, as you did with "all houses in this neighborhood." Now, if it is a house in this neighborhood, then it must be blue. It is a house in this neighborhood only if it is blue. This tells us nothing about houses in other neighborhoods, but it's still a conditional relationship with regard to these houses.

"Unless" and "only" and "only if" all indicate necessary conditions, but that doesn't mean they are identical in meaning. Use your common understanding of those words to see the differences. But all of these mean the same thing:

A house cannot be in this neighborhood unless it's blue.

A house can be in this neighborhood only if it's blue.

Only blue houses are in this neighborhood.