Claudio Gutierrez and Luis G. Coronado

Translated from Spanish by Inés Gutiérrez

1. Determine the function of the text; point out the cases where language has a different function from the one prevailing. If there are any definitions, indicate and classify them.

   1. In fact, the first and fundamental crime is simply to exist, for existence is an inveterate cannibal or something worse, as it is always feeding from some part of itself. Vegetarians try to justify themselves, ostensibly avoiding their feeding on their own children, or on other animals, and calling inanimate everything that they do not devour. But, is there something that is inanimate? There is nothing, in any case, unformed; and by destroying the form of things in the hope of preserving our own, we commit an act of indubitable violence, and impossible success. However, we cannot suppress aggression: it would be like suppressing youth’s impetuosity, or decreeing a general suicide so as to prevent an occasional murder. The only solution, since the conflict must always break out, is to entertain it as gentlemanly as possible, allowing reason to somehow moderate lust for life: to train existence, since it must perish, to perish gracefully, and, by timely consent, to harmonize the will of the dying with that of his heirs. By saying this, I am far from emulating the ancient sage, branded as the advocate of death, whose eloquence pushed some youngsters –Greek men and women–, precipitated by divine despair, to throw themselves into the sea. (Santayana. Dialogues in Limbo).

   2. Some people think that psychoanalysis has shown the impossibility of being rational in our beliefs, indicating the strange and almost crazy origin of the most precious convictions of many. I respect psychoanalysis and think that it can be very useful. But the spirit of the masses has lost sight of the purposes which guided Freud and his followers. Their method is, above all, therapeutic, to cure hysterics and several kinds of madness. During the war, psychoanalysis was the best treatment for war neurosis. River, in his Instinct and the Unconscious, based on the experiences of shell-shock victims, provides a beautiful analysis of the morbid effects of fear when it cannot be set free. Most of those effects are, naturally, not intellectual; they comprise several kinds of paralysis and all kind of illnesses recognizable from physical appearance. They do not interest us at the moment; our subject is that of intellectual disturbances. Most illusions of mad people are the results of instinctive obstructions that can be cured by purely mental means, i.e. making the patient remember events whereof memory has been repressed. This treatment and the opinion that inspired it presuppose an ideal of sanity abandoned by the sick person and to which he must be restored, making him conscious of the main facts, even those he himself wants to forget. This is exactly the opposite of that irrational acquiescence advocated by those who have only seen in psychoanalysis an exposition to the predominance of irrational beliefs, and who forget or choose to ignore that its object is to diminish that prevalence by means of a definite medical method. A very similar method can cure irrationalities in those who are not declared lunatics, provided they submit to treatment at the hands of a practitioner who does not suffer from the same illusions. Presidents, ministers, and eminent people can rarely fulfill this requirement and, therefore, cannot be cured. (Russell, Science, Philosophy, and Politics)

2. In the following paragraphs, determine the number of propositions; eliminate everything accessory.

   1. The collapse of feudal society’s medieval system possesses a capital significance in relation to all social classes: the individual was left alone and isolated. He was free but this freedom had a dual effect. Man was deprived of the security he enjoyed, of the unquestionable feeling of belonging, and was rooted out of a world which satisfied his craving for security, both economic and social. He felt lonely and anxious. But he was also free to act and think with independence, free to take possession of himself and make out of his own life all he was capable of doing, and not what he was commanded to do. (Fromm. Escape from Freedom).

   2. The time of myths, prehistory of philosophy, is the time when myth reigns exclusively and, therefore, the time when it is not recognized as such. Human consciousness declares itself the structure of the universe since the very beginning. That is why, if we want to attain the sense of the myth, it would be clumsy to start from a mythological collection or encyclopedia. Indeed, mythology gathers myths from all ages and all origins, but extricated from their lived context, that is, denaturalized. The mythological enterprise itself is a belated event. It transpires a reflexive initiative, a desire for systematization still strange to the mythical-age man. For him, the myth is not a myth, but truth itself. (Gusdorf, Myth and Metaphysics).

   3. Prosperity leads to power, and when a nation dominates over other nations, its government hardens even in the issue of internal politics; its complex functioning cannot be stopped nor corrected easily; the imperialist nation becomes a slave of its own mission. Furthermore, prosperity demands inequality of conditions and creates inequality of fortunes, in such a way that too much work and too much richness kill individual freedom. (Santayana, Dialogues in Limbo).

   4. The truth is, Socrates, that many times, either with him, or with others, we have discussed the same problem, without ever having been convinced that name precision is no other thing than a pure agreement and convention. In my opinion, if the name assigned to an object is correct, the one given when its name is changed for another is not less correct. It occurs, for instance, that we change the names of our servants without, without by so doing rendering the substitute name any less exact than the first one. And that is so because nature does not assign names to objects as things absolutely their own and irreplaceable, but rather leaves this matter to the usage and customs of those in charge of prescribing names. (Plato. Cratylus).

3. 3. Identify the atomic and molecular propositions:

   1. In the descriptive part of the texts from the previous exercise.

   2. If the dollar exchange rate keeps on increasing, great economical problems will follow for the Costa Rican middle class.

   3. He took a strong dose of narcotics and went to bed with the unswerving intention of speaking laud to her, first thing in the morning.

   4. It may be that the illiteracy index in Costa Rica is increasing.

   5. “Only supreme magistrates are allowed to lie, in order to deceive the enemy or the citizens for the sake of the republic.” (Plato, The Republic)

   6. World peace is seriously threatened by the conflicts in Viet Nam and Korea.

4. Distinguish the different logical connectives present in the following texts:

   1. The molecular texts of the previous exercise.

   2. “Therefore, of two things one: if the natural philosophical disposition is cultivated by the practice of the appropriate sciences, it will necessarily arrive by degrees to virtue itself: if, on the contrary, it declines, grows and develops on strange ground, there is no vice it will not someday produce, unless some god watches over its preservation in a special way.” (Plato, The Republic).

   3. “It is an indisputable tradition that Greek tragedy, in its most ancient form, had as its unique subject matter the sufferings of Dionysus and that, during the longer period of his existence, the only hero on the scene was precisely Dionysus.” (Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy)

5. Which of the following molecular propositions are true, based upon the truth or falsehood of the respective atomic propositions and the meaning of their logical connectives?

   1. (There is war in Viet Nam) and (there is war in Korea).

   2. (There is war in Viet Nam) and (there is war in South America).

   3. If (there is war in Viet Nam) then (there is war in Europe).

   4. (There is war in Korea) and (there is war in South America).

   5. If (there is war in South America) then, either (there is war in Europe) or (there is war in Viet Nam).

   6. (Either (there is war in South America) or (there is war in Korea)) and (either (there is war in Viet Nam) or (there is war in the Middle East)).

   7. Or (if (there is war in the Middle East) then (there is war in South America)) or (there is war in Viet Nam).⁽¹⁾

Note 1, written in 2000: The instructor is encouraged to either tell the students to research the world situation in 1968 or change the exercise appropiately to conform to the current international situation.