On Syllogisms, by Lewis Carroll

Once master the machinery of Symbolic Logic, and you have a mental occupation always at hand, of absorbing interest, and one that will be of real use to you in any subject you may take up. It will give you clearness of thought - the ability to see your way through a puzzle - the habit of arranging your ideas in an orderly and get-at-able form - and, more valuable than all, the power to detect fallacies, and to tear to pieces the flimsy illogical arguments, which you will so continually encounter in books, in newspapers, in speeches, and even in sermons, and which so easily delude those who have never taken the trouble to master this fascinating Art.

Let I be : It is Interesting
M: It is Modern
Y: It is Your poem
P: It is Popular among people of real taste
A: It is affected
S: It is on the subject of soap bubbles

The universe in this puzzle is the collection of all poems, while the five assertions below are implications involving the simpler statements above.

1. No interesting poems are unpopular among people of real taste.
2. No modern poetry is free from affectation.
3. All your poems are on the subject of soap-bubbles.
4. No affected poetry is popular among people of real taste.
5. No ancient poem is on the subject of soap-bubbles.

To begin, we write each statement symbolically, along with its contrapositive:

1. I → P , ~P → ~I
2. M → A , ~A → ~M
3. Y → S , ~S → ~Y
4. A → ~P , P → ~A
5. ~M → ~S , S → M

Therefore, I → P → ~A → ~M → ~S → ~Y
or its more accurate contrapositive, Y → S → M → A → ~P → ~I.
Therefore, Y → ~I.

Griffin's Note: I attempted to use this as an excuse for my invented implicational argument form, the "Hypothetical Trilogism" (And subsequent Quadrilism, Quintagism, and Sexagism) to my logic instructor. He informed me I was full of shit. But logically valid. Next week I attempt to introduce Modus Ponendo Stercus Taurus†

†(That is, "Mode That Affirms By Bullshit)
In other news, Common and Mos Def with a beat by J Dilla that is wonderful.

Make of this what you will.


And in case you wanted to know who the Lonely Island was making fun of, it was Slim Thug. God I hate Slim Thug.

Change-up! (That is a baseball term for when the pitcher intentionally throws a slow ball after a series of fast balls to mess with the batter's timing Now you know a Sports Thing!)