Fun and games with Wittgenstein
August 20, 2014 5:53 PM Subscribe
Trying to track down a logic...game? Puzzle program? Studying aid type thing.
Mystery from the past: So I was recently having a conversation about logic. Specifically about taking logic courses in college. I mentioned how in a class I took there was this computer "game" -- for lack of a better word -- that came with our textbook that we did some of our homework with.
Intermittently over the years I'd remember that game and try to find it, but without much luck. I know this exists because the other person also excitedly told me they vaguely remembered a similar thing but we both had a real hard time confirming what it was called...and it's been so long since I've been in college...
I could've sworn it was called "Wittgenstein's World," but oddly Googling that has been a big fat nope. From what I remember, you were given a three-dimensional plane where you place various objects like cubes, spheres and pyramids to make statements true. For example, "The cube is in front of the sphere." But the complexity would grow, and you'd have to do things like make arrange things in such a way so that statements like "the cube is front of the sphere but not near the pyramid" would be true along with several other statements to build tautological truths and whatnot.
I'm going to be super embarrassed if someone is able to Google this in a matter of seconds, but you'd have my eternal gratitude for scratching this itch for me. Bonus points if anyone can also figure out where I can get a hold of this to run on my computer.
Mystery from the past: So I was recently having a conversation about logic. Specifically about taking logic courses in college. I mentioned how in a class I took there was this computer "game" -- for lack of a better word -- that came with our textbook that we did some of our homework with.
Intermittently over the years I'd remember that game and try to find it, but without much luck. I know this exists because the other person also excitedly told me they vaguely remembered a similar thing but we both had a real hard time confirming what it was called...and it's been so long since I've been in college...
I could've sworn it was called "Wittgenstein's World," but oddly Googling that has been a big fat nope. From what I remember, you were given a three-dimensional plane where you place various objects like cubes, spheres and pyramids to make statements true. For example, "The cube is in front of the sphere." But the complexity would grow, and you'd have to do things like make arrange things in such a way so that statements like "the cube is front of the sphere but not near the pyramid" would be true along with several other statements to build tautological truths and whatnot.
I'm going to be super embarrassed if someone is able to Google this in a matter of seconds, but you'd have my eternal gratitude for scratching this itch for me. Bonus points if anyone can also figure out where I can get a hold of this to run on my computer.
Response by poster: This would've been early 2000s. Probably around 2002-2003 if I'm correctly remembering when I took this class. And I ran the program off of a Windows PC.
posted by kkokkodalk at 6:15 PM on August 20, 2014
posted by kkokkodalk at 6:15 PM on August 20, 2014
Best answer: My husband, the philosopher, says: Tarski's World.
posted by tomboko at 7:03 PM on August 20, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by tomboko at 7:03 PM on August 20, 2014 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: OMG YEEESSSSSS. It totally is it. I had the wrong name, now wonder I couldn't find it! I Googled and saw the images and confirmed it is what I'm remembering. You have no idea how happy I am right now. Thank you so much!
posted by kkokkodalk at 7:25 PM on August 20, 2014
posted by kkokkodalk at 7:25 PM on August 20, 2014
I learned first-order logic using Tarski's World! It had various "worlds" in it, that were supposed to help you understand the model theory/semantics behind the language.
posted by persona au gratin at 11:40 PM on August 20, 2014
posted by persona au gratin at 11:40 PM on August 20, 2014
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