One year at WSU, thought it would be fun to take Philosophy 210 Symbolic Logic. Fascinating course, it basically teaches you how to reason, rationally and impersonally, and gives you the tools to comprehend whether or not an argument is sound. Totally removes rhetoric, emotional appeals, all of that. Logic functions at this level are either, or, and, and if/then.
So for example somebody says if this or that then the other, the statement will be true if this is true, and if that is true, and if both are true. Only if this and that are both false is the statement false.
Read that one again, because this is literally how it works. This or that could be anything. That's where it gets depersonalized. That's where it becomes pure logic.
Okay. So most of the tests consist of fairly simple statements just like the one above, only with this and that replaced with more contentious terms just to see if the students really understand and are able to reason and use the logic functions properly.
Fine. Until this one test, midterm maybe, and its quite a bit harder and the last four questions are a couple paragraphs each. You're supposed to read them through, cross out all the flowery nonsense (which in the test as in real life is upwards of 90%) in order to restate the text in logic operands, and then work through them and conclude the argument is sound or not.
There's four of these and I work through them and look around and nobody else seems anywhere near done. Well the last thing you want is a bad grade after walking out early. So I go through the whole test again.
Still nobody done. Oh well. Not my problem. Its nice outside!
Next class, glum glowering faces all around. WTF? I get my test back. 100%. But how can it be 100% when there's points taken off on one?
Turns out the test was so hard nobody (except me) was even close to finishing. The prof gave them extra time, and let them all choose one of the four to skip. So the one I didn't get quite right didn't count anyway, and I got 100%.
This was a junior/senior level class. So no freshmen. These were all college students. They signed up for the class. They wanted to get a good grade. They were in other words very capable, and highly motivated. They had everything going for them, and yet found the subject so hard most barely squeaked by with a passing grade.
Its no wonder then that of a random selection of forum posters many will be incapable of anything even resembling rational thought.
So for example somebody says if this or that then the other, the statement will be true if this is true, and if that is true, and if both are true. Only if this and that are both false is the statement false.
Read that one again, because this is literally how it works. This or that could be anything. That's where it gets depersonalized. That's where it becomes pure logic.
Okay. So most of the tests consist of fairly simple statements just like the one above, only with this and that replaced with more contentious terms just to see if the students really understand and are able to reason and use the logic functions properly.
Fine. Until this one test, midterm maybe, and its quite a bit harder and the last four questions are a couple paragraphs each. You're supposed to read them through, cross out all the flowery nonsense (which in the test as in real life is upwards of 90%) in order to restate the text in logic operands, and then work through them and conclude the argument is sound or not.
There's four of these and I work through them and look around and nobody else seems anywhere near done. Well the last thing you want is a bad grade after walking out early. So I go through the whole test again.
Still nobody done. Oh well. Not my problem. Its nice outside!
Next class, glum glowering faces all around. WTF? I get my test back. 100%. But how can it be 100% when there's points taken off on one?
Turns out the test was so hard nobody (except me) was even close to finishing. The prof gave them extra time, and let them all choose one of the four to skip. So the one I didn't get quite right didn't count anyway, and I got 100%.
This was a junior/senior level class. So no freshmen. These were all college students. They signed up for the class. They wanted to get a good grade. They were in other words very capable, and highly motivated. They had everything going for them, and yet found the subject so hard most barely squeaked by with a passing grade.
Its no wonder then that of a random selection of forum posters many will be incapable of anything even resembling rational thought.