Originally Posted by yaaarrrgg

The phrase "water is wet" is often given as a statement that's so obviously true, that the truth can't be questioned. But is the phrase "water is wet" really true? This is not obvious to me.

Unpacking meaning, "wet" likely just means "like water." Consider how this word is learned ... by experiencing water, then generalizing to other liquids like milk and paint. When we say "the paint is wet" we are likely just saying "the paint is like water" ... meaning liquid.

So a statement like "Water is wet" is probably just saying something like "Water is like water" at bottom.

Since "water is like water" is simply repeating the same thing twice (the trivial case of the 'like' operator), it's really more a redundancy than a truth.

Worse it introduces possible error. If we want to be real sticklers, we could even say "Water is like water" is technically false. That water isn't "like" water but is exactly the same thing.