In this episode, we discuss logic — but couched in writing an essay about William Blake's poem The Tyger, which I actually helped a student with years ago, way back in 2006 or 2012 or thereabouts. So this episode is about what I remember doing with that student to correct mistakes he had about the assignment and to help him write an A paper.

We had to use some logic and thinking skills like definition, classification, contrast, similarity and difference, thinking as asking and answering questions, and concept-formation. Being about logic, this episode applies to all things: physics, chemistry, math, history, literature, medicine, marketing, philosophy, fitness, and more -- it applies to any use of conceptual thought to understand things in the world, because everywhere we turn to think conceptually, we need logic to do it right and be true.

We need to train students to always think about concretes to not get lost in words and not get lost in math. We should help them be real. We and they need to be rooted in reality to not waste money — or injure people or destroy lives. Logic is not a joke or mere academic issue.

Students need the cognitive tools to be true to reality. Their and our lives and well-being depend on it. And teachers have the responsibility to provide it.


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Show notes
1. William Blake's poem The Tyger: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43687/the-tyger

2. Some of the other poems in Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Innocence_and_of_Experience

3. "A literary element, or narrative element,[1] or element of literature[2] is a constituent of all works of narrative fiction—a necessary feature of verbal storytelling that can be found in any written or spoken narrative. This distinguishes them from literary techniques, or non-universal features of literature that accompany the construction of a particular work rather than forming the essential characteristics of all narrative. For example, plot, theme, character and tone are literary elements, whereas figurative language, irony, or foreshadowing would be considered literary techniques.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_element)

4. Literary devices: https://literarydevices.net
a. Assonance: https://literarydevices.net/assonance/
b. Alliteration: https://literarydevices.net/alliteration/
Examples: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/alliteration-examples.html
c. Euphemism: https://literarydevices.net/euphemism/
Examples: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-euphemism.html
d. Synecdoche: https://literarydevices.net/synecdoche/
Examples: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-synecdoche.html
e. Foreshadowing: https://literarydevices.net/foreshadowing/
Examples: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/foreshadowing-examples.html
f. Hyperbole: https://literarydevices.net/hyperbole/
Examples: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-hyperbole-in-literature.html
g. Imagery: https://literarydevices.net/imagery/
Examples: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-imagery-poems.html
h. Metaphor: https://literarydevices.net/metaphor/
Examples: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/reference/examples/extended-metaphor-examples.html
i. Simile: https://literarydevices.net/simile/
j. Personification: https://literarydevices.net/personification/
Examples: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-personification.html
k. Symbolism: https://literarydevices.net/symbolism/

5. Literary devices, see also: https://blog.prepscholar.com/list-of-literary-devices-techniques

6. Examples of alliteration
a. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” — Martin Luther King, Jr

b. "I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street”
—Robert Frost (Acquainted with the Night)

c. “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation…” — Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

d. "He was four times a father, this fighter prince:
one by one they entered the world,
Heorogar, Hrothgar, the good Halga
and a daughter, I have heard, who was Onela´s queen,
a balm in bed to the battle-scarred Swede.”
-Beowolf

e “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before”
-Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven

f. "Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one’s self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda. At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.” --Martin Luther King, Jr. (From MLK’s 1947 article “The Purpose of Education,” published in the Morehouse College campus newspaper The Maroon Tiger. See: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/purpose-education)

g. "Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.” (source: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/v_for_vendetta/quotes/)

7. Related resources I found in getting notes together for this episode
a. https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/blake/section9/
b. https://literarydevices.net/the-tyger/



Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Tyger_BM_a_1794.jpg