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Examples of Logic in Trifles
Key terms (from Barnet, From Critical Thinking to Argument: A Portable Guide):
1. Assumption: Unexamined beliefs
2. Premise: Stated assumptions used as reasons in an argument 3. Syllogism: The conclusion produced by the joining of two premises--statements
taken to be true 4. Sound argument: An argument is sound if all premises are true and the
syllogism is valid. 5. Deduction: The mental process of moving from one statement through another to yet a further statement. To put it another way, deduction takes beliefs and assumptions and extracts their hidden consequences. Deduction does NOT give
any new information. 6. Induction: Uses information about observed cases to reach a conclusion about
unobserved cases (often using inferences and generalizations). An example of how the sheriff's assumptions and logical errors made it difficult
for him to solve the case
Let's look at an error in reasoning
Syllogism #1:
Premise #1: Mrs. Wright did not admit to killing Mr. Wright (Glaspell 965).
Premise #2: "Kitchen things" are unimportant (Glaspell 966).
Syllogism:
There's no motive for Mrs. Wright to kill Mrs. Wright (Glaspell 966). This syllogism is false because premise #2 is false, which the women discover later in the play. The title of the play is ironic because the kitchen is full of trifles--unimportant
things--that are later shown to be essential to solving the case.
We could also identify the sheriffs error in reasoning as a logical fallacy.
Let's look at a specific passage in more detail: "County Attorney (To the Sheriff: You're convinced that there was nothing important
here--nothing that would point to any motive?
Sheriff. Nothing here but kitchen things" (Glaspell 966). A hasty generalization is to move from true assertions about one or a few instances to
dubious or even false assertions about all. The sheriff makes a hasty generalization when he declares that there is nothing important in the kitchen. He quickly and incorrectly assumes that since there are some unimportant items in the kitchen that all of the kitchen items are unimportant. He makes this assumption without bothering to confirm whether his assumption is valid. (Of course, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters examine the kitchen