Logic -- Juvenile literature; Logic, Symbolic and mathematical
If you meet with Syllogisms of this kind, you may work them, quite
easily, by the system I have given you: you have only to make
'are' mean 'are CAPABLE of being', and all will go smoothly. For
"some x are y" will become "some x are capable of being y", that
is, "the Attributes x, y are COMPATIBLE". And "no x are y" will
become "no x are capable of being y", that is, "the Attributes
x, y are INCOMPATIBLE". And, of course, "all x are y" will become
"some x are capable of being y, and none are capable of being y'",
that is, "the Attributes x, y are COMPATIBLE, and the Attributes
x, y' are INCOMPATIBLE." In using the Diagrams for this system,
you must understand a red counter to mean "there may POSSIBLY be
something in this compartment," and a grey one to mean "there cannot
POSSIBLY be anything in this compartment."
3. Fallacies.
And so you think, do you, that the chief use of Logic, in real life,
is to deduce Conclusions from workable Premisses, and to satisfy
yourself that the Conclusions, deduced by other people, are correct?
I only wish it were! Society would be much less liable to panics
and other delusions, and POLITICAL life, especially, would be a
totally different thing, if even a majority of the arguments, that
scattered broadcast over the world, were correct! But it is all
the other way, I fear. For ONE workable Pair of Premisses (I mean
a Pair that lead to a logical Conclusion) that you meet with in
reading your newspaper or magazine, you will probably find FIVE
that lead to no Conclusion at all: and, even when the Premisses
ARE workable, for ONE instance, where the writer draws a correct
Conclusion, there are probably TEN where he draws an incorrect one.
In the first case, you may say "the PREMISSES are fallacious": in
the second, "the CONCLUSION is fallacious."
The chief use you will find, in such Logical skill as this Game
may teach you, will be in detecting 'FALLACIES' of these two kinds.
The first kind of Fallacy--'Fallacious Premisses'--you will detect
when, after marking them on the larger Diagram, you try to transfer
the marks to the smaller. You will take its four compartments, one
by one, and ask, for each in turn, "What mark can I place HERE?";
and in EVERY one the answer will be "No information!", showing that
there is NO CONCLUSION AT ALL. For instance,
"All soldiers are brave;
Some Englishmen are brave.
&there4 Some Englishmen are soldiers."
looks uncommonly LIKE a Syllogism, and might easily take in a
less experienced Logician. But YOU are not to be caught by such
a trick! You would simply set out the Premisses, and would then
calmly remark "Fallacious PREMISSES!": you wouldn't condescend to
ask what CONCLUSION the writer professed to draw--knowing that,
WHATEVER it is, it MUST be wrong. You would be just as safe as
that wise mother was, who said "Mary, just go up to the nursery,
and see what Baby's doing, AND TELL HIM NOT TO DO IT!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account