Assert

[Sean Kelly]

David B. Held wrote:
> Georg Wrede wrote:
>> [...]
>> DAVID, please, take note: enforce might not be the optimum word for 
>> it. I'd rather suggest "ensure". (Yes, David and not Andrei, because I 
>> assume English is David's mother tongue, so he's got some influence on 
>> Andrei about this.)
>>
>> IMHO, "enforce" is like holding somebody at gunpoint, while "ensure" 
>> is like an "ultimate check". In other words, "enforce" ends up (in the 
>> real world) in coercing, while "ensure" ends up in "double check this, 
>> and if it doesn't work, ask your boss".
>> [...]
> 
> I agree that denotationally, "ensure" is probably more correct, but 
> connotationally, I think "enforce" is better.  "Ensure" has a pansy tone 
> to it that I wouldn't take very seriously; but when I see "enforce", I 
> think "Oh, I'd better take a look at what this is doing."

I've used "predicate" for this before.


Sean