Intuitive and Philosophical

Thinking
 Quick Puzzles
Some easy puzzles follow.
Theyre intuitively easy to solve.
Think of them as a warm-up to some more
difficult philosophical ideas.
Youll have fifteen seconds to solve each one.
Number from 1 to 3.
Write down your answer to each.
Dont think too hard lets start gradually!
 Puzzle One: Bat and Ball
A bat and ball cost 1.10. The bat costs
1.00 more than the ball.

How much does the ball cost?

Write down your answer to puzzle 1
 Puzzle 2: Widget Machines
If it takes five machines five minutes to
make five widgets, how long would it take
100 machines to make 100 widgets?

100 minutes OR 5 minutes?

Write down your answer to puzzle 2
 Puzzle 3: Lily Pads
In a lake, theres a patch of lily pads.
Every day, the patch doubles in size. It
takes 48 days for the patch to cover the
entire lake. How long does it take for
the patch to cover half of the lake?

24 days OR 47 days?
Write down your answer to puzzle 3
 Answers
Here are the answers to our easy starter.
After Ive shown you them, Ill ask you
how many you got right
and what we can learn from this exercise.
 Puzzle One: Bat and Ball
A bat and ball cost 1.10. The bat costs
1.00 more than the ball.

How much does the ball cost?

The ball costs 5p. The bat costs 1 more,

so 1.05. 5p and 1.05 make 1.10
 Puzzle 2: Widget Machines
If it takes five machines five minutes to make five
widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to
make 100 widgets?

100 minutes OR 5 minutes?

Each machine clearly makes one widget every five

minutes. So in 5 minutes 100 machines would
make 100 widgets.
 Puzzle 3: Lily Pads
In a lake, theres a patch of lily pads. Every day, the
patch doubles in size. It takes 48 days for the patch to
cover the entire lake. How long does it take for the
patch to cover half of the lake?

24 days OR 47 days?

Because they double in size every day, on day 48 they

have covered the whole lake. So on day 47 the lily pads
covered half the lake.
 Reassuring Fact
This test explores the nature of human
cognition.
More than 50% of students at Harvard, Oxford
and Cambridge Universities gave the wrong
answers when given this test.
 Worrying Facts
What do these puzzles show us about the difference
between intuitive and philosophical thinking?
Quick versus slow. Woolly versus precise. Common sense versus
the correct answer. The obvious versus the counterintuitive.
What do they show us about our capacity to think
philosophically?
In even the cleverest people it can be poor. We rush to
judgement.
But! Cognitive strain increases accuracy. If Id told you these
puzzles were hard, youd have been more likely to get them right.
 Hard Puzzle
Read the syllogism below. Does the conclusion follow from
the premises?

[Premise] All roses are flowers.

[Premise] Some flowers fade quickly.
[Conclusion] Therefore some roses fade quickly.
 Answer to Hard Puzzle
The conclusion does not follow from the
premises.
The argument is therefore flawed, or invalid.
Because: it is entirely possible that there are
no roses among the flowers that fade quickly.

(Dont confuse the FACT that some roses do fade quickly

with what the argument as cited proves.)
 What does the Hard Puzzle show?
the same as the first easy puzzles
that we tend to accept obvious or insistent ideas
at face value.
that logical, philosophical thinking is difficult to do,
and most people dont or cant take the trouble.
that when people believe a conclusion is true, they
are very likely to believe arguments in favour of their
view, even if these arguments are wrong(this is
called confirmation bias)
 Conclusion:
Thinking philosophically is HARD.
Most of us CANNOT DO IT EASILY.
But philosophical and logical thinking skills are
INCREDIBLY POWERFUL AND USEFUL.