Since I suggested it, I am taking the initiative to follow it up.
"Who believes that it is fair to use the inverse, converse and contra positive of a statement when analyzing its meaning? For example, the Wittgenstein example posed today in class- would it be fair to reverse and manipulate the sentence to analyze it in its entirety??"
Why don't we give our responses here and it will make it a lot easier to have our discussion.
Lets Start !
Kruthika
First of all, thanks for all of the prompt and interesting responses to my question!! I realized that I didn't clarify the definitions of inverse, converse and contrapositive:
ReplyDelete* statement: if p then q
* converse: if q then p
* inverse: if not p then not q
* contrapositive: if not q then not p
Using this framework, let us take the sentence: If it snows heavily, then school is canceled.
In this instance "snows heavily"= p and "school is canceled"= q. We notice right away that the converse is not true: If school is canceled, then it snows heavily. In addition, the inverse is not true: If it does not snow heavily, then school is not canceled. Finally, the contrapositive is a true statement (possibly with some conditions): If school is not canceled, then it does not snow heavily.
The point of all of this is- the inverse and converse of this statement were false, so do you still believe that this type of analysis is essential to a full understanding of the statement?
hey... okie... i actually dont think the inverse and converse is essential to understand a statement... but sontimes it can give a deeper insight into a statememt... or even (like your example) turns it arround...!! so sometimes itz nice to play around with the statement/line...the line could change completely with a converse or inverse!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteSee sometimes if we look deeply into the meaning of a sentence then we will for sure find multiple meanings and that is not necessarily good. Yes the inverse and the converse is essential a lot of times but then it depends on the situation in which the sentence is presented. There are times its preferable to take the meaning at its face value.
ReplyDeleteBut then this is my point of view nd I'm sure there various other things which can be said in this matter !