logic 5

I found this piece from “The Happiness Hypothesis” pretty interesting: In the 1990s, Damasio found that when certain parts of the orbitofrontal cortex are damaged, patients lose most of their emotional lives. They report that when they ought to feel emotion, they feel nothing, and studies of their autonomic reactions (such as those used in lie detector tests) confirm that they lack the normal flashes of bodily reaction that the rest of us experience when observing scenes of horror or beauty. Yet their reasoning and logical abilities are intact. They perform normally on tests of intelligence and knowledge of social rules and moral principles. ...

From Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. These are the quotes I found most… how shall I put it… eye-opening. Paradigm-shifting. “..the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury found it advisable-” “Found WHAT?” said the Duck. “Found IT,” the Mouse replied rather crossly. “Of course you know what ‘it’ means.” “I know what ‘it’ means well enough, when I find a thing,” said the Duck: “it’s generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the archbishop find?” ...

Another interesting piece related to complexity: a speech on the paradox of randomness by Gregory Chaitin. via missing matter

Infosys, Wipro and TCS are “expected to see a higher than expected rise” in their revenues. Hmm… I didn’t know that was logically possible.

Stephen’s Guide to the Logical Fallacies – a comprehensive list of common fallacies.