patrick.net

In this famous thought experiment, which could actually be done, someone might say, "well, since by definition, we don't know whether the cat is alive or dead, the statement that the cat is alive is by definition false."

True, it is false in the sense that we can not know that it's alive. Therefore the statement that it's alive is false.

What might be easy to miss though, by someone who is only parroting this argument and using it in a fallacious way, is that the exact same reasoning can be made regarding someone who says the cat is dead.

That statement is also false.

We just don't know.