From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sun Aug 03 2003 - 23:10:23 MDT
On Tuesday 7/11 at 7pm Phil wrote
> I've met people who simply did not
> understand certain basic logical fallacies,
> even though they seemed otherwise normal.
(That in itself is pretty amazing.)
> I personally was always fascinated by logic,
> had the good fortune to have a really good
> Euclidian geometry teacher in high school,
> and another HS teacher who introduced me to
> W.W. Fearnside and W. B. Holther's classic
> "Fallacy: The Counterfeit of Argument."
Well, you and Harvey N. are on the same footing
then. I'm surprised that you don't perceive
flaws in other people's reasoning then, all the
time, the way he did (unless I am right and it
does not happen all that often).
> Apparently, some of this got internalized, as I had
> perfect scores on every assignment and test when I
> took logic on the college level, and was able to
> consistently crank out 60-step+ proofs in formal logic
> without any changes or backtracking on tests.
Carumba! I recall one fifty step formal proof that
took me hours.
But then you write tonight
> Actually, I have never been all that good at
> manipulation of symbols as such.
Well.. (what is the emoticon for total exasperation?)
Could you provide an example of what kind of problem
it is that you are good at? :-)
> I was really terrible at trying to prove the limit
> theorems in honors calculus, for example, and I have
> great difficulty even remembering purely symbolic material.
Okay, so I have *no* idea of what 60+ step proofs you
are talking about!
> However, although I have a lousy symbolic memory, I
> can hold a kind of kinesthetic model of statements in
> my mind, and work with that model intuitively to yield
> proofs. The formal logic that I could handle so well
> in college involved statements and their relationships.
Were these statements formal? I.e., p->q etc.?
Or just puzzles of the Lewis Carroll variety
1. No kitten that loves fish is unteachable;
2. No kitten without a tail will play with a gorilla;
3. Kittens with whiskers always love fish;
4. No teachable kitten has green eyes;
5. No kittens have tails unless they have whiskers.
Lee
P.S. So you are not an example of what Paul was talking
about "hyperlexia"?
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