Читать книгу Selected Mathematical Works: Symbolic Logic + The Game of Logic + Feeding the Mind: by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, alias Lewis Carroll - Lewis Carroll - Страница 43

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Let us agree that a Red Counter, placed within a Cell, shall mean “This Cell is occupied” (i.e. “There is at least one Thing in it”).

Let us also agree that a Red Counter, placed on the partition between two Cells, shall mean “The Compartment, made up of these two Cells, is occupied; but it is not known whereabouts, in it, its occupants are.” Hence it may be understood to mean “At least one of these two Cells is occupied: possibly both are.”

Our ingenious American cousins have invented a phrase to describe the condition of a man who has not yet made up his mind which of two political parties he will join: such a man is said to be “sitting on the fence.” This phrase exactly describes the condition of the Red Counter.

Let us also agree that a Grey Counter, placed within a Cell, shall mean “This Cell is empty” (i.e. “There is nothing in it”).

[The Reader had better provide himself with 4 Red Counters and 5 Grey ones.]