Day: July 27, 2015

A Zen story

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Buddha told a parable in sutra:
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!

Paraprosdokians

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Paraprosdokians are linguistic brain scramblers in which the latter part of the sentence isn’t what you expected based on the first part of the sentence, causing you to re-think the entire statement.

2 examples:

“War does not determine who is right … only who is left.” (Often attributed to Bertrand Russell)

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.” (Widely attributed to Winston Churchill)

@ http://mentalfloss.com/article/65921/11-paraprosdokians-will-make-you-think-twice

What is a valid argument?

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What is a valid argument?
1. Valid deduction and true conclusion
Premis 1: Humans are mammals,
Premis 2: mammals are animals
Conclusion: therefore humans are animals
2. Valid deduction and false conclusion
Premis 1: Humans are trees,
Premis 2: trees are plants
Conclusion: therefore humans are plants
3. Invalid deduction and true conclusion
Premis 1: Humans are mammals,
Premis 2: Cats are animals,
Conclusion: therefore humans are animals
4. Invalid deduction and false conclusion
Premis 1: Humans are animals,
Premis 2: Roses are plants,
Conclusion: therefore humans are plants
Only the first case is a valid argument. Besides you can have 2 persons both believing that “humans are animals” but one believes it based on case1-like type of reasoning while the other one believes it based on case3-like type of reasoning. So, when testing your knowledge, verify not only whether your opinion is true or false, but also if your reasoning is valid! And if your opinion is false, don’t look just for the truth in your premises but also the soundness of your reasoning!