The Devil's Dictionary: Logic

LODGER

LOGOMACHY

LOGIC

-n.

The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. The basic of logic is the syllogism, consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion - thus:

• Major Premise>: Sixty men can do a piece of work sixty times as quickly as one man.
• Minor Premise: One man can dig a posthole in sixty seconds;

therefore -

• Conclusion: Sixty men can dig a posthole in one second.

This may be called the syllogism arithmetical, in which, by combining logic and mathematics, we obtain a double certainty and are twice blessed.