Irrefutable Logic

Many people are aware of how spam is my favorite food — to make fun of. It just about tops my list of things that should not exist.

Therefore, 10 points to any who can point out the flaw in this irrefutable logic:

  1. Nothing is better than a big juicy steak.
  2. Spam is better than nothing.
  3. Therefore, spam is better than a big juicy steak.

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December 11, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 13 Comments 
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Comments

13 Responses to “Irrefutable Logic”

  1. Eric on December 11th, 2009 8:30 am

    There’s more than one fallacy here, but I guess the one you’re looking for is that spam is better than nothing. Given what you’ve said I doubt you believe that’s true!

  2. rob on December 11th, 2009 9:00 am

    equivocation: nothing ?

  3. John on December 11th, 2009 9:31 am

    Agreed – you’re equivocating on “nothing” in your two premises.

  4. Mike Anderson on December 11th, 2009 10:09 am

    Agreed— Equivocation of “nothing” is one problem. Also you make two assumptions, and the one about Spam being better than nothing is false.

  5. Ben on December 11th, 2009 11:04 am

    The word “nothing” can have 2 senses. The first is how you mean to use it in the first two statements: “there isn’t anything.” To rephrase,

    1. There isn’t anything better than a big juicy steak.
    2. Spam isn’t better than anything.

    In order to compose these statements into your third statement, you misread the word “nothing” to mean “having nothing”.

    1. Having nothing is better than having a big juicy steak.
    2. Having spam is better than having nothing.

    You could then compose those to say, “Having spam is better than having nothing, which is better than having a big juicy steak.” Which could then reduce to what you actually said.

  6. Pete on December 11th, 2009 12:54 pm

    I agree, equivocation of the term “nothing.”

    Also, it’s interesting that this post links to related post, “10 Productivity Tips for Building Relationships.” I don’t see the connection between it and spam.

  7. Buddy Williams on December 11th, 2009 1:32 pm

    Going out on a limb to say:

    “nothing is better” is not a invalid/false proposition.
    nothing != better

    You are actually affirming the opposite:
    - “nothing” = “everything”
    - “is” = “is not”

    “everything is not better” is a valid proposition.

    Which leaves us with:
    1. Everything is not better than juicy steak.
    2. Spam is not better than everything.
    3. Spam is not better than juicy steak.

    Feedback?

  8. Buddy Williams on December 11th, 2009 1:33 pm

    Sorry — that should read:
    “nothing is better” is not a valid proposition.

  9. Gordon Cheng on December 11th, 2009 2:28 pm

    What’s wrong with Spam?????

    -Aggrieved of East Longbottom.

  10. Matt on December 11th, 2009 5:03 pm

    10 points to everyone — you’ve passed with flying colors.

    Except for Gordon, of course — negative 10 to you, Gordon, for saying something good about spam!

  11. JC on December 14th, 2009 5:31 pm

    Here’s a mind-bender for you all:

    A cowboy rode into town on Tuesday. Two days later, he left the town. He left town on Tuesday, too. Explain.

  12. Josh McPherson on December 16th, 2009 12:28 pm

    Tuesday was his horse’s name.

  13. JC on December 16th, 2009 4:57 pm

    Josh wins!

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