Chapter 43 mainly focused on
situations where we invalidate our own reasoning. Michael Scriven, a professor
of the logic of science, starts off the chapter by giving an example of how “The
unexpected hanging” paradox works. The
puzzle starts off with a man who is condemned to be hung. The man was sentenced on a Saturday and the
judge stated that the hanging will take place at noon but on one of the seven
days of next week, without the prisoner knowing. It will become a surprise for the prisoner
who is getting hung. The prisoner and his lawyer discuss about how the sentence
cannot be carried out because the judge’s order seems self-refuting. The lawyer explains that the judge cannot
hang the prisoner on Saturday because it is already the last day of the week
and that he will still be alive on Friday afternoon of next week. Since he will
still be alive on Friday afternoon, Thursday cannot be the day of the hanging
either because if he is alive on Wednesday afternoon, he will know already that
Thursday is the day.
The prisoner continues to convince
himself and be confident that he will not be hung at all next week because he
will know ahead of time. But that is the
problem, the paradox of “The unexpected hanging” is still a controversial topic
because there are no correct deductions.
It is easy to guess what will happen next, but what assures you that it
WILL actually happen? You may guess
correctly, but it does not always result being true. At the end, the hanging
does occur. The prisoner assumed that his prediction will be fulfilled, but it
was falsified.
“Future events can be known to be a
true prediction by one person but not known to be true by another until after
the event.” The judge knew already what day the hanging was going to occur, but
the prisoner did not. It was ultimately up to the judge to decide what day of
the week the hanging was going to be happen, without the prisoner knowing when
his last day of life was going to be.
The judge was clear on keeping his word of the sentence happening the
following week but the prisoners’ expectation was completely different.
Even though Chapter 43 did not deal
with a lot of Mathematics, it still had me thinking on various sections. It
came to my surprise that there are many examples of how philosophers have not fully
concluded on how to resolve these kinds of paradoxes. There are no actual answers on how we expect
things to happen. Guessing is one way of knowing what will happen next but it
is not always assured right. I learned
that we cannot come to a conclusion of how unexpected things and situations
will occur. There are no correct
deductions on guessing what day there will be a pop quiz or a fire drill. That
will be a surprise that we are not expecting. I really enjoyed reading this
chapter! Ps-Don't procrastinate!
This chapter really intrigued me, especially the paradox of "The unexpected hanging". I like your insight on not coming to conclusions. It is so true!
ReplyDeleteI agree. This chapter doesn't really seem to be a lot about mathematics we've been learning, but it does give insight on interesting paradoxes like the one mentioned in the chapter. I like how even though there can' be a concrete answer for all these paradoxes, we can still have a prediction or guess that is pretty close!
ReplyDeleteI agree that the "unexpected hanging" is a very controversial topic and that guessing will not always provide us with a conclusion of whats actually going to happen.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this chapter was easier to understand compared to the other ones last week because it didn't have as much math as the other ones.This one was more about paradoxes. Also good job on your summary.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your summary of the chapter, this chapter was really interesting to me, mainly because of the topic covered. The paradoxes are really thought provoking, and I think that your summary really highlighted that when you were explaining "The Unexpected Hanging". This was a really well done summary, nice job.
ReplyDeleteI found this chapter to be very interesting it led me to think long and hard on the "unexpected hanging". Although it was a little confusing i felt that your post helped clarify some of the confusion that i had.
ReplyDeleteThe topic is controversial, I agree. It got me contemplating on the notion of logic vs Reality. To my understanding, the topic discusses the idea of making assumptions based on one's perception of reality; and I agree that these assumptions are at manier times false as one's perception of realty may not be same as another's perception of reality/ real reality. However, it can be argued that by careful consideration of concrete causal indicators of individual units of a situation (instead of setting a general premise for the whole situation), one can arrive at a more accurate prediction
ReplyDeleteThis chapter definelty made me do some thinking. Your post did a good job of hitting the main points, and really will help anyone who was confused about the chapter. I thought the most interesting topic was logic vs reality. It was a little confusing, but it really made me think.
ReplyDelete