The Game of Logic
Lewis Carroll
Children
1:38 h
Level 6
The Game of Logic is a book, published in 1886, written by the English mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898), better known under his literary pseudonym Lewis Carroll. In addition to his well-known children's literature, Dodgson/Carroll was an academic mathematician who worked in mathematical logic. The book describes, in an informal and playful style, the use of a board game to represent logical propositions and inferences. The book aims to teach players the fundamentals of logic by asking players to use coins on a board. The proposition used in this context is: "Some fresh cakes are sweet." The game world is divided into four quadrants. It is to be played with five gray coins and four red coins. A red coin symbolizes one or more cakes being present in an area while a gray coin symbolizes the absence of the cake(s). Each quadrant represents a variation of the original proposition. The cakes are fresh and sweet within the northwest quadrant. They are fresh but not sweet in the northeast. They are neither fresh nor sweet in the southeast. They are not fresh but are sweet in the southwest.

The Game of Logic

by
Lewis Carroll

COLOURS FOR
COUNTERS

See the Sun is overhead,
Shining on us, FULL and
RED!

Now the Sun is gone away,
And the EMPTY sky is
GREY!

To my Child-friend.

I charm in vain; for never again,
All keenly as my glance I bend,
Will Memory, goddess coy,
Embody for my joy
Departed days, nor let me gaze
On thee, my fairy friend!

Yet could thy face, in mystic grace,
A moment smile on me, ‘twould send
Far-darting rays of light
From Heaven athwart the night,
By which to read in very deed
Thy spirit, sweetest friend!

So may the stream of Life’s long dream
Flow gently onward to its end,
With many a floweret gay,
Adown its willowy way:
May no sigh vex, no care perplex,
My loving little friend!

Nota Bene

With each copy of this Book is given an Envelope, containing a Diagram (similar to the frontispiece) on card, and nine Counters, four red and five grey.

The Envelope, &c. can be had separately, at 3d. each.

The Author will be very grateful for suggestions, especially from beginners in Logic, of any alterations, or further explanations, that may seem desirable. Letters should be addressed to him at “29, Bedford Street, Covent Garden, London.”

Preface

“There foam’d rebellious Logic, gagg’d and bound.”

This Game requires nine Counters — four of one colour and five of another: say four red and five grey.