October 23, 2018 Tuesday
Bedtime Story
Deficiency of Syllogism
Logical reasoning/syllogism is a necessary
prerequisite in understanding the laws of nature.
Bit it alone is demonstrably insufficient
as is evident by the dismal failure of various philosophies (“philosophy” being
used in its modern sense rather than Newtonian way) in grappling with the laws
of nature.
What syllogism possesses in logical rigor
is completely lacking in experimentation and observation.
Let me explain this idea to you using some
elementary examples.
First, let me give you a perfectly sound
example of syllogism.
Some cats have no tails.
Cats are mammals.
Therefore, some mammals have no tails.
This, even though a rather elementary
example – when extended further shows that syllogism is a very powerful logical
reasoning tool when you have accurate facts in hand.
It helps you to reach valid and true
conclusions.
And yet, even this simple example aptly
demonstrates that one needs careful set of observations and in many cases
experiments to get to the valid assumptions or axioms.
In this case for instance, the only way to
know the veracity of both the statements (formally known as major and minor premises)
requires a sound data of biological facts and studies.
The simple fact of today that “cats are
mammals” could not have been attained by arm-chair reasoning; it required
generations of biologists and naturalists to get their hands dirty by dissecting
dead cats, making detailed sketches of their viscera and anatomy, studying
their various systems and their layout and comparing them with those of others
in the vast animal kingdom.
In fact such classifications have to
undergo modifications if new evidence comes into record such as discoveries of
new fossilized mammals or even better data from DNA sequencing.
Today’s biologists feed the genetic
sequences obtained into algorithms such as “molecular evolutionary genetic
analysis” which is capable of conducting a statistical analysis of molecular
evolution and for constructing phylogenetic trees.
Now let me provide you with yet another
example of syllogism that is rationally as logically perfectly sound.
Cats with wings are flying cats.
Flying cats are mythological.
Cats with wings are mythological.
The conclusion that is derived from the
above two premises are very sound but rather absurd since flying cats do not
exist.
This is a rather childish example and yet
it is a fair representation of the inherent weakness of syllogisms.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
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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