Baronett S. Why Did the Logician Cross the Road?: Finding Humor in Logical Reasoning

London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. — 137 p.Find out what connects logic and humor in this alternative guide to logical reasoning. Combining jokes, stories, and ironic situations, Stan Baronett shows how it is possible to ground the language of logic in everyday experience.
Each chapter introduces a basic logical reasoning concept based on happenings in daily life. Using jokes as his examples, Baronett reveals the inner workings of logic. After all an effective joke often relies on an unanticipated assumption that leads to an unexpected result. The assumption changes the normal context of an everyday situation, so we are surprised by the ending. A complex mind that learns from experience, and builds a storehouse of regularly recurring patterns, is a great survival tool. But for a joke to work, the punch line has to be something our minds don't logically anticipate. The ending jolts our minds for a split second while we grasp the absurdity of the situation.
This is how logic works: one part of your mind determines whether the information you are receiving is true or false, while another part of your mind deals with logical consequences. Injecting a sense of humor into logical language, Baronett helps us understand how to analyze basic logical reasoning and provides light relief for anyone daunted by the complex world of logic.Preface
You Call That An Argument?
What’s It All About?
Statements
Arguments
Explanations
Truth and Logic
Puzzles
The Cake Puzzle
That Comes In Two Flavors
Certainty and Uncertainty
Take That
Logical Possibilities
Categorical Arguments
The Start-Finish Puzzle
I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You
Definitions
You Left Out The Best Part
Rhetorical Language
The Portrait Puzzle
Origin Of The Specious
Heuristics and Algorithms
Heuristics and Cognitive Biases
Confirmation Bias
Status Quo Bias
Functional Fixedness Bias
Ingroup Bias
Fundamental Attribution Bias
What Can We Do?
Complex Question Fallacy
Circular Reasoning Fallacy
Hasty Generalization Fallacy
False Dichotomy Fallacy
Ad Hominem Fallacy
Equivocation Fallacy
Composition Fallacy
Division Fallacy
Gambler’s Fallacy
Grammatical Confusion
Moral Dilemmas
The Step Ladder Puzzle
It’s Nothing Like That
Relevance
Counteranalogy
Unintended Consequences
Groupies
The Mislabeled Boxes Puzzle
Operator Assistance
Conjunction
Negation
Disjunction
Conditionals
Contingent Statements
Non-Contingent Statements
Paradox
The Hats Puzzle
Below Average
Samples and Populations
Averages
The Cards Puzzle
Casual Causality
Causal Networks
Correlations
Testing Hypotheses
The Gallons Puzzle
Puzzle Solutions
Suggestions For Further Reading
Index