The Figural Effect: Part 1

Ok, let’s get to grips with thinking and consider our ability to reason in a rational way.

Class Exercise

We will begin by considering how people combine different bits of information in order to draw sensible conclusions. In the following scenarios, imagine a group of people gathered together in a room.

Consider the following two statements:

Case 1

Some beekeepers are artists

All artists are bell-ringers

Take your time and think about this and write down what you think follows with absolute certainty from these statements. (Ideally you should not be using the pencil and paper to work this out because we are primarily interested in how thinking alone operates.)

Alert

Please complete this exercise before moving onto the next step because the answers are provided there.