Tuesday, July 18, 2006

I Think So

It's pretty quiet here tonight. John & Edward went to Detroit this afternoon for a Tiger game and Maria & I have been hanging out in outer space. I read this joke on the internet, though:

René Descartes is sitting in a café. He’s just finished a cup of his favorite Surabaya Johnny Half-Caf Arabica-Cappucino Blend. The waiter asks him if he’d like another.
Descartes says, “I think not.”
And he disappears...


Even though I majored in and loved math in college, I'm so bad at your everyday logic. (John can attest to this, I add feeling to my logic, his is of a pure rational variety). One person made the observation that this joke uses bad logic. "I think therefore I am" is logically equivalent to "I am not therefore I do not think", but does not imply "I do not think, therefore I am not."
Sure enough, look at it carefully - if the statement is true, the contrapositive is true, however the inverse and the converse may not be true.
And that makes perfect sense - if you are laying there in a coma or something and not thinking, that does not mean that you are not. See how much easier it is to understand when you add a little feeling or story to it?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is totally out of my realm but I'm sure you're not surprised!

Jewels said...

You're such a Queen Mother!