PHI305: Elements of Symbolic Logic

Spring 2021
Problem set #2
Due 2/4/2021 by 2 pm on Blackboard

Name:

Part 1: Consider the following two examples of inquiry. Explain how they fit the pattern of inquiry.
What is the problematic situation it responds to? Explain what stages of inquiry are suggested. If a
settlement was reached, what was it and did it resolve the initial indeterminate situation.

1. “I have on a number of occasions felt that I had enjoyed a period of intimate communion with the
divine. These meetings came unasked and unexpected, and seemed to consist merely in the temporary
obliteration of the conventionalities which usually surround and cover my life. . . . Once it was when from
the summit of a high mountain I looked over a gashed and corrugated landscape extending to a long
convex of ocean that ascended to the horizon, and again from the same point when I could see nothing
beneath me but a boundless expanse of white cloud, on the blown surface of which a few high peaks,
including the one I was on, seemed plunging about as if they were dragging their anchors. What I felt on
these occasions was a temporary loss of my own identity, accompanied by an illumination which revealed
to me a deeper significance than I had been wont to attach to life. It is in this that I find my justification
for saying that I have enjoyed communication with God. Of course the absence of such a being as this
would be chaos. I cannot conceive of life without its presence.” (William James, The Varieties of
Religious Experience)

2. “I propose to consider the question, ‘Can machines think?’ This should begin with definitions of the
meaning of the terms ‘machine’ and ‘think.’ The definitions might be framed so as to reflect so far as
possible the normal use of the words, but this attitude is dangerous, If the meaning of the words
‘machine’ and ‘think’ are to be found by examining how they are commonly used it is difficult to escape
the conclusion that the meaning and the answer to the question, ‘Can machines think?’ is to be sought in a
statistical survey such as a Gallup poll. But this is absurd. Instead of attempting such a definition I shall
replace the question by another, which is closely related to it and is expressed in relatively unambiguous
words.
The new form of the problem can be described in terms of a game which we call the 'imitation game." It
is played with three people, a man (A), a woman (B), and an interrogator (C) who may be of either sex.
The interrogator stays in a room apart front the other two. The object of the game for the interrogator is to
determine which of the other two is the man and which is the woman. He knows them by labels X and Y,

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and at the end of the game he says either ‘X is A and Y is B’ or ‘X is B and Y is A.’ The interrogator is
allowed to put questions to A and B thus:
C: Will X please tell me the length of his or her hair?
Now suppose X is actually A, then A must answer. It is A's object in the game to try and cause C to make
the wrong identification. His answer might therefore be:
‘My hair is shingled, and the longest strands are about nine inches long.’
In order that tones of voice may not help the interrogator the answers should be written, or better still,
typewritten. The ideal arrangement is to have a teleprinter communicating between the two rooms.
Alternatively the question and answers can be repeated by an intermediary. The object of the game for the
third player (B) is to help the interrogator. The best strategy for her is probably to give truthful answers.
She can add such things as ‘I am the woman, don't listen to him!’ to her answers, but it will avail nothing
as the man can make similar remarks.
We now ask the question, ‘What will happen when a machine takes the part of A in this game?’ Will the
interrogator decide wrongly as often when the game is played like this as he does when the game is
played
between a man and a woman? These questions replace our original, ‘Can machines think?’” (Alan Turing,
Computing Machinery and Intelligence, http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/TuringArticle.html)

Part 2: Consider the following example. Give a description of the process you would use to solve the
puzzle and try to solve it. Explain each of the things you do. Try not to leave out any steps. As you
give the description of the process, label each step with the name of the stage of inquiry it
represents

Welcome to your new position as a driver for UPS. Today you need to deliver packages to Dr. Smith, Ms.
Washington, Mr. Erickson, and Ms. Trujillo. They all live together on a short street with no outlet.
Thanks to a mistake somewhere in the UPS system, the addresses are missing, but someone has noted
instructions and given them to you so that you can get the packages to the right houses. There are only
four houses on the street and they are each made from a different material (recycled plastic, wood, brick
and glass) so it should be easy.
Dr.Smith’shouseissomewheretotheleftofthewoodenoneandthethirdonealongis brick. Ms. Washington
owns a house made of blocks of recycled plastic and Mr. Erickson does not live at either end, but lives
somewhere to the right of the glass house. Ms. Trujillo lives in the fourth house, while the first house is
not made from recycled plastic. Who lives where, and what is their house made from?

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