标签：logic

Traditional Textbook-Style Argumentative Tactics

Culture & Public Commentary2007.05.05
Traditional Textbook-Style Argumentative Tactics
Good question! The trouble with traditional textbooks is not really their views, though I do dislike many of the views in traditional textbooks. After all, they represent a certain popular way of understanding problems, and that in itself is not too bad. But the problem lies in their style of argument and their attitude. In a sense, the strategy of traditional textbooks is quite powerful and ingenious (otherwise how could they have had such a profound influence in the Soviet Union and China?). Similar strategies are actually used quite often in many other places as well. We ourselves may even use them unconsciously quite often. In short, it is to…
philosophy culture tradition discussion
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2007年5月5日
On the Discussion on the Teachers’ Blogs: Defining Is Not So Easy

History of Science & Scholarship2007.03.22
On the Discussion on the Teachers’ Blogs: Defining Is Not So Easy
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/485ea879010006su It’s Not So Easy to Set Definitions: A Critique of Fang Zhouzi’s Definition of Pseudoscience 2007-02-06 21:34:33 It’s Not So Easy to Set Definitions: A Critique of Fang Zhouzi’s Definition of Pseudoscience Liu Huajie Fang Zhouzi rails against pseudoscience with great certitude, as if the matter of pseudoscience were easy to explain clearly. In “Pseudoscience in the Age of Science (Part II)” (see http://www.shunz.net/2005/11/321.html), Mr. Fang Zhouzi quite confidently defined “pseudoscience.” A few days ago, Teacher Jin Wulun of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences had already commented on this definition in the Science Times, and today I will say a few words as well. Mr. Fang put it…
science philosophy of science Liu Huajie logic
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2007年3月22日
[U.S.] Joseph Mazur: “Euclid in the Rainforest—A Narrative Brief History of Mathematics”—★

History of Science & Scholarship2007.01.22
[U.S.] Joseph Mazur: “Euclid in the Rainforest—A Narrative Brief History of Mathematics”—★
[U.S.] Joseph Mazur: *Euclid in the Rainforest—A Storyed Short History of Mathematics*, translated by Wu Fei, Chongqing Publishing Group, Chongqing Publishing House, December 2006 A new installment of Xiaogu’s quarterly recommendations has appeared! This is the most surprising, most unusual popular science book I have read in recent years! It is no exaggeration at all to say that the chair of Harvard’s mathematics department commented that the author “has pioneered a highly attractive way of writing”; at the very least, I have never read anything remotely like this style of popular science writing! The subtitle and the review of this book may easily give one the wrong impression—that this is…
book reading notes logic proof
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2007年1月22日
Some Fun Problems, Parts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9

History of Science & Scholarship2006.09.05
Some Fun Problems, Parts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9
Some Amusing Puzzles, III: Taking an Inch and Then a Mile, Cleverly Guessing a Go Piece, a Chaotic Village, Things That Can Only Be Said on Tuesday, and a Super BT Problem Xingding posted on 2006-09-05 13:39:14 Taking an Inch and Then a Mile At a dance, Luoji saw a beautiful woman, so he went up to chat her up and invited her to dance with him. The beautiful woman said, “I hate dishonest people. Tell you what: I’ll listen to one sentence from you. If it’s true, I’ll dance with you; if it’s false, I’ll never speak to you again!” Luoji thought for a moment and said a sentence….
book reading notes mathematics logic
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2006年9月5日
One of a Few Puzzlers: The Three-Person Peach Juice Problem

History of Science & Scholarship2006.08.05
One of a Few Puzzlers: The Three-Person Peach Juice Problem
During the summer vacation I was supposed to help Bobo prepare a book of logic and reasoning puzzles, so after coming back to Shanghai I went rummaging through the pile of Olympiad math books and recreational math books that I had kept at the bottom of my chest. I had always had the most of this kind of book, so finding several dozen problems was easy enough. Of course, for the sake of originality, I would rewrite both the problems and the solutions. The first thing that came to mind was the classic five pirates dividing the loot problem: five pirates divide 100 gems. The five men in turn propose…
book reading notes mathematics logic
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2006年8月5日
The Paradox of Boring Games

Philosophy & Thought2006.07.30
The Paradox of Boring Games
Someone in the paradox studies course was planning to talk about some chess sophistry, saying that chess is a boring game, but his reasoning has serious problems. Let me reinforce it a bit: I’ll first offer a chess variant with slightly altered rules, and start with a math problem: **Two-move chess:** Modify the rules of chess so that in each round each player may make two consecutive moves, with everything else unchanged. Prove that the player to move first has a strategy of at least a draw. The proof is very simple: Proof by contradiction. Assume the first player has no strategy of at least a draw. That is, no…
philosophy mathematics game logic
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2006年7月30日
An Analysis of “The Half-Fee Lawsuit”

Philosophy & Thought2006.07.11
An Analysis of “The Half-Fee Lawsuit”
The so-called “Half-Fee Lawsuit” is said to be a story related to the ancient Greek sophist Protagoras: Protagoras was the founder of the Sophist school and one of the earliest fee-charging teachers in ancient Greece. A man named Euthlus once became Protagoras’s student to learn the art of litigation and defense, and the two signed a contract: when Euthlus enrolled, he would pay half the tuition fee; the other half would be paid in full when Euthlus won his first case after graduation. However, after graduating, Euthlus kept delaying and did not appear in court to argue cases for others, so the remaining half of the tuition fee had to…
philosophy logic paradox
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2006年7月11日
An Analysis of the “Sudden Drill Paradox”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.06.24
An Analysis of the “Sudden Drill Paradox”
An Analysis of the “Sudden Drills Paradox” Abstract: The “sudden drills paradox,” also called the “surprise exam paradox,” the “unexpected hanging paradox,” and so on, is briefly surveyed and analyzed in this article in non-technical language. I reexamine the reasoning premises and steps that may give rise to the paradox, and attempt to offer a way of understanding it. Keywords: sudden drills paradox exam paradox epistemic paradox contradiction Origin What was called the “sudden drill problem” was a puzzling question that had circulated for several years at the time. During the Second World War, the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation aired the following announcement: Within the coming week, there will be an…
mathematics paper logic paradox
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2006年6月24日
A Discussion of “Shuangfei” — Reposting an Earlier Article and Comments from Teacher Liu’s Blog

History of Science & Scholarship2006.06.22
A Discussion of “Shuangfei” — Reposting an Earlier Article and Comments from Teacher Liu’s Blog
The two posts contained nearly 10,000 Chinese characters of my own contributions—almost as much as the original text and all the other comments combined. Even I, reading it back, felt I had been far too presumptuous. Still, fortunately the teachers are all good people, so they should be able to indulge me. Although I don’t usually browse forums, being able to write a couple of comments on a blog while at the same time exchanging views with people I admire or look up to is a very pleasant feeling. The “double-negation” principle and examples http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/485ea879010003k7 2006-05-28 18:27:46 The “double-negation” principle and examples Liu Huajie “Correctness is neither sufficient nor necessary…
philosophy science philosophy of science Liu Huajie
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2006年6月22日
A Preliminary Analysis of the “Surprise Drill Paradox”

Philosophy & Thought2006.05.21
A Preliminary Analysis of the “Surprise Drill Paradox”
A Preliminary Analysis of the “Sudden Drill Paradox” Xingding posted on 2006-05-21 20:45:48 I don’t know whether there is any future in writing this line of thought out… In any case, this topic could either serve as an assignment for the summer course on “paradox studies,” or as the assignment for the current “philosophy of logic” course~ But to turn this piece of writing into a proper paper will still take some effort… A Preliminary Analysis of the “Sudden Drill Paradox,” (Continued) Xingding posted on 2006-05-25 17:24:18 But in any case, I still have not really dissolved this paradox. In fact, the extent to which I have analyzed it should…
philosophy logic paradox
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2006年5月21日