The Uses of Language

 

Logic; Chapter 2

 

Identify the kinds of agreement and disagreement in fact and attitude exhibited by the following pairs.

 

1.         a.  Ms. Blank is a fluent conversationalist.

            b.  Ms. Blank is a terrible chatterbox.

   

2.         a.  Mr. Blank is an independent thinker.

            b.  Mr. Blank never agrees with anybody.

   

3.         a.  Ms. Dash generously contributed five dollars.

            b.  Ms. Dash gave only five dollars.

   

4.         a.  Mr. Dash came within 2 percent of meeting his quota.

            b.  Mr. Dash failed to meet his quota.

   

5.         a.  Mr. Roe served a delightful little lunch.

            b.  Mr. Roe served a magnificent banquet.   

 

6.         a.  Ms. Roe talked too much at the meeting.

            b.  Ms. Roe maintained a stupid silence at the meeting.

   

7.         a.  Ms. Doe served a positively skimpy meal.

            b.  Ms. Doe really overdid it serving such vulgarly excessive portions at her dinner.

   

8.         a.  The bottle is half full.

            b.  The bottle is half empty.

   

9.         a.  Little Jimmy often attempts to win by unorthodox methods.

            b.  Little Jimmy cheats at games.

   

10.       a.  Suzy has a marvelous imagination.

            b.  Suzy has no respect for facts.

   

11.       a.  Opportunity knocks but once.

           b.  It’s never too late to mend.

   

12.       a. A stitch in time saves nine.

            b. Better late than never.   

 

13.       a. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

            b. Out of sight, out of mind.

   

14.       a. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.

            b. But that’s the way to bet.

 

15.       a. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.

            b. Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.

   

16.       a. For when the One Great Scorer comes

               To write against your name,

               He marks - not that you won or lost -

               But how you played the game.

            b. Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.

 

17.    a.  For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only necessary, but

               expedient; from the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, other

               for rule … It is clear, then, that some men are by nature free, and others slaves, and

               that for these latter slavery is both expedient and right.

           b. If there are some who are slaves by nature, the reason is that men were made

               slaves against nature. Force made the first slaves, and slavery, by degrading and

               corrupting its victims, perpetuated their bondage.

 

18.     a. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of

               nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to face it.

           b. War crushes with bloody heel all justice, all happiness, all that is Godlike in man. 

               In our age there can be no peace that is not honorable; there can be no war that

               is not dishonorable.

 

19.   a. Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which

             neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.

         b. Education is fatal to anyone with a spark of artistic feeling. Education should be

             confined to clerks, and even them it drives to drink. Will the world learn that we

             never learn anything that we did not know before?

 

20.   a. Belief in the existence of god is as groundless as it is useless. The world will never

             be happy until atheism is universal.

         b. Nearly all atheists on record have been men of extremely debauched and vile

             conduct.

 

21.   a. I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be  rendered to

             any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other

             branches of a husbandman’s cares.

         b. With the introduction of agriculture mankind entered upon a long period of

             meanness, misery, and madness, from which they are only now being freed by the

             beneficent operation of the machine.

 

22.   a. Whenever there is, in any country, uncultivated land and unemployed poor, it is clear

             that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right.

         b. Every man has by nature the right to possess property of his own. This is one of the

             chief points of distinction between man and the lower animals.

 

23.   a. The right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their

             government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of the oppression,

             if they are strong enough, either by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and

             substituting a government more acceptable.

         b. Inciting to revolution is treason, not only against man, but against God.

 

24.   a. Language is the armory of the human mind; and at one contains the trophies of its

             past, and the weapons of its future conquests.

         b. Language - human language - after all, is little better than the croak and cackle of

             fowls, and other utterances of brute nature - sometimes not so adequate.

 

25.    a. How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today?

             I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

         b. With all the imperfections of our present government, it is without comparison the

             best existing, or that ever did exist.

 

26.    a. Farming is a senseless pursuit, a mere laboring in a circle. You sow that you may

             reap, and then you reap that you may sow. Nothing ever comes of it.

         b. No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth. 

 

27.    a. Our country: in her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right;

             but our country, right or wrong!

         b. Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put

             right.

 

28.    a. A bad peace is even worse than war.

         b. The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.

 

29.    a. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or a county jail.

         b. I know few things more pleasing to the eye, or more capable of affording scope and

             gratification to a taste for the beautiful, than a well-situated, well-cultivated farm.

 

30.    a. Thought, like all potent weapons, is exceedingly dangerous if mishandled. Clear

             thinking is therefore desirable not only in order to develop the full potentialities of

             the mind, but also to avoid disaster.

         b. Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it never comes to the aid of spiritual

             things, but - more frequently than not - struggles against the divine Word, treating

             with contempt all that emanates from God.