Hidden Logic within Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?

Question

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898) was a mathematics teacher at Oxford University in England. You know this man better as Lewis Carroll (his pseudonym), the auther of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Carroll enjoyed inverting things in his writing. Read this famous exchange between Alice and the Cheshire Cat:

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," sad the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."
Alice didn't think he proved anything at all.

The cat justifies the statement "if you're here, you must be mad" by reversing the statements, saying "if you're mad, you must be here."

Explain why Alice doesn't agree with the Cat at all.

Answer 1

The cat says A => B is equivalent to B => A, and this is not true.

The truth table for A => B is:
A:T B:T A=>B:T
A:T B:F A=>B:F
A:F B:T A=>B:T
A:F B:F A=>B:T

This is not the same if you reverse A and B.

Though actually it is all nonsense, since there is no basis for the truth of any of it (except for "you are here") outside of the assertion by the cat. So all that has been proved is that the cat is mad.

Answer 2

if i could vote for a good question, you may win. the secret air of secret of alice in wonderland/for the duration of the finding glass is that no count how previous you're, no count in case you're an grownup or a newborn, you could so easily think of which you're particularly the single that is falling down a rabbit hollow or working from a jabberwock (real once you're a newborn, often metaphorical once you're an grownup). truthfully everyone can relate to being so bored that they start having a pipe dream. and according to the place you're on your life and the reports you have had, each and every thing in there may well be interpreted in a various way. a classic occasion of that's the beginning up of the action picture dogma, the place between the angels makes use of the walrus and the chippie poem to persuade a nun that there isn't any god. sorry, i temporarily switched to term paper mode. lol. in a nutshell, i like it. i'm thoroughly obsessed. I truly have study it repeatedly, seen 5 (i think of) action picture variations, and drawn and painted various of that's photographs. i'm addicted.

Answer 3

Alice didn't think she was mad. You'll find the use of different bases for counting elsewhere in the book, when the rabbit is "late, for a very important date", I think.

Answer 4

she doesn't agree because she isn't mad, because the cat is trying to call her crazy.

Answer 5

because she's mad