Samhain\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waning Wolf Moon<\/p>\n
Sigh.\u00a0 The Vikings.\u00a0 Going to the Cardinals for a big game has proved unhappy for us.\u00a0 Again.\u00a0 I don’t even know the final score because I turned it off with 6 minutes to go.\u00a0 Not a pretty sight.<\/p>\n
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Logicomix is a great read.\u00a0 If you love philosophy and logic.\u00a0 Which I do.\u00a0 I had forgotten my passionate affair with logic until reading this graphic novel.\u00a0 In my freshman year of college I took Symbolic Logic from Professor Larry Hackestaffe, most famous for wandering the main yard of Wabash College with a six-pack of Budweiser fastened to his belt through one of the plastic can holders.<\/p>\n
This was logic in the formal sense with proofs and theorems, logical symbols and head breaking chains of reasoning.\u00a0 This was my second semester in college.\u00a0 The first had been tough because German and I did not see eye to eye and I dropped it to avoid failing.\u00a0 After my valedictory year at Alexandria-Monroe High School, that defeat stung.\u00a0 The grammar and writing guy was also not impressed with my work, giving me a C for the first term.<\/p>\n
Symbolic Logic came along because philosophy was what had been missing in my life up till then, intellectual rigor, unafraid, thought seeking understanding at the most basic, essential levels, colorful characters like Heraclitus, Socrates, Aristotle, William of Occam bursting upon the stage, contradicting each other, going one step further or pulling others one step back.\u00a0 God, it was exciting.\u00a0 That was the first semester at Wabash, the same semester as Freshman English and German.<\/p>\n
In history and philosophy I did outstanding work, so I dove into them the next semester with a second course in the history of philosophy and the course in Symbolic Logic.\u00a0 It was hell at first.\u00a0 The kind of intellectual rigor required for logical reasoning can bring on headaches.\u00a0 The night before the mid-term I stayed in the library past midnight, my book open, pencil working out proofs, scratching out false starts, feeling dismayed.\u00a0 It was German all over again.\u00a0 I didn’t get it, wouldn’t get it.\u00a0 This was impossible stuff.<\/p>\n
I do not remember the problem, but I do remember the moment when, like a lightning bolt, it came to me.\u00a0 Like Moses parting the Red Sea, the path to logical clarity opened up.\u00a0\u00a0 I did very well in that course and learned something about persisting in an academic area that at first seemed impenetrable.\u00a0 Intuition was a part of my learning style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Samhain\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waning Wolf Moon Sigh.\u00a0 The Vikings.\u00a0 Going to the Cardinals for a big game has proved unhappy for us.\u00a0 Again.\u00a0 I don’t even know the final score because I turned it off with 6 minutes to go.\u00a0 Not a pretty sight. Logicomix is a great read.\u00a0 If you love philosophy and logic.\u00a0 Which I … Continue reading Logicomix<\/span>