Subject
A syllogism
From
Date
Body
A syllogism: other men die; but I
Am not another; therefore I'll not die. (l.213-4)
This could be a reference to Leo Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Ilyich" (1886):
All men die. Kay is a man. Therefore, Kay will die. But, thinks Ivan Ilyich,
I'm not Kay; therefore, that doesn't apply to me. What may be true about all
other men, is not necessarily true about me. The first part (about Kay) is
an example of the type of syllogism called "Barbara" and Tolstoy probably
took it from some textbook on logic (Bertrand Russell's example of "Barbara"
cited in a chapter on Aristotle: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man;
therefore, Socrates is mortal), but I don't have a good edition of Tolstoy's
works with commentary at hand to confirm this.
Regards,
SK
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Am not another; therefore I'll not die. (l.213-4)
This could be a reference to Leo Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Ilyich" (1886):
All men die. Kay is a man. Therefore, Kay will die. But, thinks Ivan Ilyich,
I'm not Kay; therefore, that doesn't apply to me. What may be true about all
other men, is not necessarily true about me. The first part (about Kay) is
an example of the type of syllogism called "Barbara" and Tolstoy probably
took it from some textbook on logic (Bertrand Russell's example of "Barbara"
cited in a chapter on Aristotle: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man;
therefore, Socrates is mortal), but I don't have a good edition of Tolstoy's
works with commentary at hand to confirm this.
Regards,
SK
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm