October Logic Classes

1)  Please read "The Musgrave Ritual" for next week (October 15) and tell me what "Musgrave Ritual" means!

Additionally, please note the meanings of these words and answer these questions:

anomaly - page 130

Why is V. R. patriotic for Holmes? (pg. 130)

crux - pg. 131

Who is Holmes' biographer? (also pg. 131)

recherche' - pg. 132

mullioned - pg. 134

paragon - pg. 135

Who is Don Juan? (also page 135)

What does "thrown her over" mean? (pg. 135)

cafe' noir - pg. 136

assiduous - pg. 138

mere - pg. 140 (this is a noun)

rigmarole - pg. 142

Did you find red herrings in this story?

Who was Charles II?


2) Please fill out your outline of story elements as you move through this story! We will talk about these in class next week.

3) Now would be a great time of year to also listen to or read (or watch) "The Hound of the Baskervilles" - please consider it!

4) Please complete your grid puzzles and other puzzles for next week. We will discuss those in class and continue working at least one grid puzzle together in class.

5) Let's begin looking at two more logical fallacies:

Circular reasoning

I'm sure your parents have used circular reasoning with you before: You must do all these math problems. Why? Because I said so. But, why? Because I'm the parent.... (Do we know yet why we must do all the math problems? Caution! Further questioning is most likely to lead to a slippery slope....)

So here's another creepy voice animation for you on circular reasoning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2wj4Lk07RE

I think another good fallacy to accompany this one would be the "loaded question."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkajIoi77BU (There are also a couple of others thrown in there!)

When asking questions, we need to try to determine what we really wish to know and ask the actual question, rather than hiding one question within another. This sort of questioning is often seen in courts of law, where an attorney will try to trip up a witness: "Mr. Jones, do you often take naps in the afternoon after beating your wife?" A yes or no to the first part of the question may indicate to some that Mr. Jones is also admitting to beating his wife.... Loaded questions may be quite subtle, however, so they are not generally as evident as this!


Try to stay off any bandwagons that will lead you down into an abyssal plain of despair until I see you again!

For October 22:
I have cut back drastically on the number of grid puzzles I'm sending home each week.  I've only sent a couple each of the past two weeks or so.  I am also trying to work at least a couple in class each week, going over them step by step.  We are in the A4 book now (and they probably really should still be doing A3 level puzzles).  I think they rushed through these too quickly....

They seem to have no difficulties with the simpler logic puzzles I've sent home from the Sherlock Holmes workbook, nor with the simple number puzzles that I've sent home, so I think those have been more successful. I sent another simple math puzzle home with them today.

Please look back at the information I sent you on Ad Hominem attacks last week and please do look for instances of that in life, advertising, your reading, etc. this next week. (There should be lots of that going on now with an election so near! I know one local campaign that is running an Ad Hominem attack against an opponent right here in town via a TV commercial....)

I will try to make time for more games next week, as we haven't played any of those for some time now. 

They will be reading another Sherlock Holmes story for next week: "The Final Problem." Please look for this info in the story and please do fill out the forms I provided looking for clues as you read:

"perversion" of facts, page 174 - what does perversion mean?

Have you heard the name Professor Moriarty before? We haven't read any other stories about him this semester, but he was Sherlock Holmes arch nemesis.
(What is an "arch nemesis," anyway?)

When Watson speaks of "the Continent" on page 175, to what is he referring?

Note that on page 176, "hereditary tendancies" comes up again (recall that they were discussing hereditary aptitudes in our last story)....

barked, page 181

morrow, page 182

At page 185, did you expect that Mycroft would make such an appearance in this tale? This might be the most physical exercise he has had in a while!

At page 186, what does Holmes mean when he says they shall "encourage the manufacturers of the countries through which we travel?"

coup-de-maitre, page 186

salle-a'-manger, page 187

equanimity, page 188

injudicious, page 193

The year is 1891. Is this the end of Sherlock Holmes? (There's one more story in the book....)


For October 29:

We are winding down our study of logic. 

1) We are finishing up our Father Brown book this week. As with all these stories, I find the vocabulary much simpler and there are a couple of endnotes detailing two of the words they think might be new to you. I think that you will all know most of these, but just in case, please do make sure to note these words if you don't already know them:

Page 118: embodiment and homely

Page 121: straggliest (is that a word?)

Page 122: pessimistic

Page 126: ominously

Page 127: vengeance and catastrophe

Page 139: conjuring

As You Read:

At the end of chapter two, do you suppose that Dr. Hood is another Sherlock Holmes?

On Page 122, why is "Other Man" capitalized?

Is there a Red Herring here?

On Page 139, do you know who Houdini is? He was very famous at about the time these stories were being written....

2) Please complete any grid puzzles from prior weeks that you have not done yet (or try them). Please work on the two puzzles I gave you for this week, as well. Also, please complete the simple number puzzle that I sent home with you this week.

3) Are you looking for Ad Hominem attacks? There are plenty of those all around us now as we move toward election week! I've seen several new commercials in just the past week that contain serious Ad Hominem fallacies! 


Regena