On Apr 14, 2013, at 3:57 AM, Ed Murphy wrote:
> ============================== CFJ 3303 ==============================
>
> The office of Registrar is Postulated.
>
> ========================================================================
>
> Caller's Arguments:
>
> Per Rule 2276, "When the holder of an office ceases to be an active player,
> the office's Assumption is flipped to Assumed."
>
> The holder of Registrar did not cease to be an active player; an active
> player ceased to be holder of Registrar.
I refer to Judge ais523's arguments for CFJ 2729:
> I interpret "the holder of an office ceases to be an active player" as "an
> officer ceases to be an active player", not "an event occurs before
> which an office was held by an active player and after which that office
> was not held by an active player", because the two readings do exactly
> the same thing (due to the irrelevance of the assumption of a vacant
> office) except that in the situation where an inactive player becomes an
> officer via a mechanism in another rule, the first reading makes the
> office unambiguously Postulated, whereas the second reading makes the
> office Postulated via Cretans; for an ambiguous sentence like that,
> where both meanings come to the same thing, it makes sense to pick the
> meaning where the rule does not contradict itself. Even if I picked the
> other interpretation, though, the verdict would be the same.
So, suppose that the office of Registrar is held by Player 1, who is active,
and then Player 2, who is inactive, is elected to the office. If we use Judge
ais523's second interpretation ("an event occurs before which an office was
held by an active player and after which that office was not held by an active
player"), then the third paragraph of Rule 2276 states that Registrar is
flipped to Assumed, while the fourth paragraph simultaneously states that
Registrar is flipped to Postulated. Thus, under this interpretation, Rule 2276
contradicts itself, and by Rule 2240, the fourth paragraph takes precedence.
I agree with Judge ais523's argument that we should pick the meaning where the
rule does not contradict itself, and besides, I think this is a more natural
reading of the rule. Thus, the correct interpretation is the "an officer ceases
to be an active player" interpretation. I judge TRUE.
I see two potentially significant consequences of this. The first is that it is
possible for a vacant office to be Postulated. Currently, this don't have much
real effect, because the rules always treat Postulated vacant offices the same
way as Assumed vacant offices (except in the case discussed in CFJ 3304,
below). The second is that an inactive player can be a Postulated office-holder
if e is elected to that office while inactive.
> ============================== CFJ 3304 ==============================
>
> The office of Registrar is Postulated.
>
> ========================================================================
>
> Caller's Arguments:
>
> Per Rule 2276, "An active first-class player can make emself the holder of an
> elected office by announcement, provided that the office is either vacant or
> Assumed. Upon doing so, the office's Assumption is flipped to Assumed."
>
> If the first CFJ is TRUE, then the office was still Postulated when I assumed
> it. It was not until after I assumed it that it became Assumed. Then " If a
> player has held an Assumed office continuously since the last time it was
> Postulated, e can flip its Assumption to Postulated by announcement."
Given the result of CFJ 3303, I think CFJ 3304 seems straightforward. First,
Registrar was vacant and Postulated. Next, scshunt made emself the holder of
Registrar by announcement. Then, Rule 2276 flipped Registrar to Assumed. Thus,
scshunt was the holder of Registrar when it was Postulated (albeit only for a
single instant), and so he had "held an Assumed office continuously since the
last time it was Postulated", allowing em to flip the office to Postulated. I
judge TRUE.
I don't actually like the TRUE/TRUE verdict here, because I don't think it
makes sense to allow arbitrary active first-class players to assume an office
and then make it Postulated (and I don't think it makes sense to distinguish
between Assumed and Postulated vacant offices), but I feel like a FALSE/FALSE
verdict would be worse, and I don't see any grounds for a TRUE/FALSE verdict.
I submit a proposal, titled "That vacant officer is doing a great job": In Rule
2276 "Assumption of Vacant Offices", to the paragraph reading "When the holder
of an office ceases to be an active player, the office's Assumption is flipped
to Assumed.", append the sentence "Whenever a vacant office is Postulated, its
Assumption is flipped to Assumed."
—Machiavelli
