Next time: section 1.2 |
We will be covering portions of the following chapters (7th edition):
I thought that we might begin with some historical logic: that of Lewis Carroll's unusual "logic game". Contemporaneous with John Venn, he created his own system for solving logic problems.
An example syllogism:
What is the logical conclusion, assuming that the premises are true?
The method: eliminating the common term
So, in the baby example, the common term "crazy" is eliminated, and we arrive at the obvious conclusion:
Conclusion: Aristotle is mortal.
Some statements come with "implied quantifiers" (real speech can be very irritating that way!): for example, in the example above, "Babies are crazy" should be interpreted to mean "All babies are crazy." There's an implied universal ("all") quantifier.
Other statements need to be re-written to look like our three types of propositions: e.g. "None but the brave deserve the fair" is re-written as "No not-brave persons are persons that deserve the fair."
"That story of yours, about your once meeting the sea-serpent, always sets me off yawning; I never yawn, unless when I'm listening to something totally devoid of interest."
Conclusion: That story of yours, about your once meeting the sea-serpent, is totally devoid of interest.
We'll turn these into implications, and use a technique known as "hypothetical syllogism" to reach that conclusion (section 1.2).
The story reminds me of a poem by A. E. Housman: The Laws of God, The Laws of Man. The reason that the story of Protagoras and Eualthus is a dilemma, a paradox, or a quandary, is that there are two different systems of laws operating.