Saturday 25 November 2017

Teaching Logic to Kids and some Remarks

When I teach logic to my kids, their little faces fall. This is a disjunction! I drill it into them, and they hate it. I love logic so much, because it enables us to sort the sheep from the goats. Some of my students are interested in logic and I say Good! You can have all the bloody logic you want! But what I really like is teaching it to my kids, who absolutely hate it.

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I discovered logic and loved it. I am a philosopher for many years now, and I have met many leading lights of the field. These people are amazing. We have talked about amazing ideas and processes, and created new ideas that will clarify things. My dog Jocone once joked, "If you're going to do philosophy, then I suggest you take the whip!" And I said "What a horrible thing to reference, Jocone, go to bed!" He went, but he had a little treat waiting there for him. I love the little guy! But seriously, philosophy is a great boon.

By the way, if any of you have any issues with any of what I have been saying in this blog post, please do not hesitate to tell me exactly what you think in the comments. Please, I am not afraid of you, and if I am not mistaken, several commenters have made serious errors here in the past. So please only post ideas that you are absolutely sure are correct, otherwise I will have to wield my "sword" and delete all of them. You will regret even talking on this blog, or having come here, and frankly that's how I think you should feel. It's been fun having this chat, and I know you are "on the same page" with these compliance issues. Please respect them accordingly.

As a final thing, I would like to say some of my favourite philosophical sayings:

- To be is to be the value of a bound variable
- If a lion could not speak we could not understand him.
- There are infinitely many possible worlds
- Existence is not a predicate
- The unexamined life is not worth living
- Give unto others as you would have them give unto yourself
- Meanings just ain't in the head

Jocone certainly doesn't understand any of this! Seriously though, see you all soon.

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3 comments:

  1. Thanks for this. I was looking at your consciousness moon poem, and now this post on logic for kids and I'm hooked! I feel exactly that same way as you. When I talk about medieval logic, my husband and kids just want to scream. But I get my self all worked up and talk about supposition.

    I really like the way Jocone looked in that last photo! I hope *he's* not talking about medieval logic! 'Jocone, the talking dog!'

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  2. I have epistemological worries about this kind of proposal. How do I know where all the kids are? Usually some of them go under their tables and even run out of the room, and I don't always see this. In principle, of course, a perfect agent would be able to spot the little buggers and get them back working on sequent calculi, but practical resource issues mean that this is out of reach given current practises. My gut tells me I should be looking for those kids, but until I see a better proposal I'm going to stay right where I am and keep drilling them. I hope Jocone isn't reading this, because he's a dog! I'd have *real* epistemic issues with *that*! Just kidding, he's a great dog.

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  3. For all x y if x is Jocone, y C ~A. Call the COCOT of Jocone a B-shield and call its Parsons twin a genuflector. Then all R are clovered by Jocone's B-shield.

    Seriously though, he's a great dog.

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