ENPages
96
A7
the beta part of existential graphs.
I did succeed, last time, in explaining alpha graphs. The black board except such portions as may be separated from the rest by “cuts,” so-called, is the sheet of assertion. Every graph, or proposition, scribed upon it is asserted. If two graphs, or propositions, are scribed upon it, each is asserted independently of the other; and it makes no difference on what part of the sheet a graph is scribed, so long as they are on separate parts of the sheet. The sheet is itself a graph-replica, or the expression of a proposition; namely it is to be interpreted as expressing whatever is well-known to be true concerning the universe of discourse. Every blank part of the sheet is to be understood
97
A8
as forever asserting that.
A cut is a self-returning line which I draw on the board with green chalk, but on paper merely as a fine line. A cut is not a graph-replica: It does not itself assert anything. But the cut together with all that is within it is called an enclosure; and an enclosure is a graph. The surface outside the cut is called its place. The surface inside the cut is called its area.
I gave you 7 Permissions; but I can state these more neatly as follows:
Go to p 18 of Vol I and then to p 26 of Lecture III Vol I.
