February 01, 2017 Wednesday
Bedtime Story
The Origins of Formal or Logical System
Logic can be loosely defined as a systematic study of the form of
argument.
With time, mathematicians realized that logic needed to be defined
more rigorously and formally.
The only way one can formalize anything is by bringing into it
mathematics.
Which essentially means brining into a system rigorous rules and
definitions that need to consistently followed and obeyed while performing any
operations within it.
So that is how it was with logic.
To make logic formal, the very first thing that was required was
primitive symbols or alphabets.
Mere primitive symbols are not enough.
They needed to have both meaning and truth values.
This process of assigning meaning to meaningless alphabets is the
derivation of formal language.
A formal language needs to have at least 2 components:
The first is syntax which is essentially the rules of a language.
The syntax defines the principles that decide the structure of
sentences be defining the word order such the sequence of subject (S), object
(O)0 and verb (V).
It is like the grammar of the language we are taught.
It is fascinating to know that almost 85% of world languages place
subject in the first place, the sequence then being either SVO or SOV.
Other sequences are also possible but are less common or rare.
The other component of a formal language is semantics.
Semantics generally refers to the meaning that is either inherent
in the words or assigned to it.
The origins of meaning in language is an interesting subject that
is under much debate and speculation.
Any logical or formal system can be used for analysis and
deduction.
A logical system has the following 4 properties:
1. Consistency
2. Validity
3. Completeness and
4. Soundness
Whether a logical system is actually possible or not is hard for
me to say, but what can be said with total certainty is that the brain of the
human apes lacks all these 4 traits very consistently.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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