The bartender asks “Do all three of you want a beer?”

The first logician says “I don’t know”.

The second logician says “I don’t know.”

The third logician says “Yes.”

  • Ignotum@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    OCs point was that if the first person hadn’t made up their mind yet, that would also cause them to say “i don’t know”, but the two following logicians seem to assume that the first person said “i don’t know” because they wanted it but didn’t know if the other two did

    It’s a false dichotomy and faulty logic if you look too closely

    But it’s a pretty funny joke

    • MxM111@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      If he has not made a mind, he does not want beer. He might want beer few moments later, but at the moment of answering the question, he does not. That’s what my logic tells me.

      • Ignotum@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        Hmm, that’s true, if the question is if all three in this moment wants a beer, then not knowing if you want it means that you don’t currently want it in the strictest sense 🤔

      • logicbomb@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        This is a good point, but I’ll move the goalposts very slightly and suggest that human brains are capable of wanting something without knowing that they want something. For example, if you say you don’t know whether you want a beer, and then the person next to you orders a beer, then at that moment, you might realize that you really did want a beer before.

        • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          It’s been shown that your brain makes it’s decision several seconds before your consciousness is aware of it.

          So, it just takes a second for the Ego to catch up with the Id

          • MxM111@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            More like 100-300 ms, but yes. However, this is much shorter time than to say “I do not know”

            • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              I think the areas of your brain that would be responsible for carrying out the decision start activating before you’re consciously aware of making the decision.

              It’s been a hot minute since I read the article on it, so I’m not 100% sure on the explanation.

    • bushvin@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Logicians is the keyword here… There are only 2 possible answers: yes (true) or no (false)

      In logic there is no other option