Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-14-2023
Department 1
Philosophy
Department 2
Judaic Studies
Abstract
Distinguishing necessary and sufficient conditions can be challenging to undergraduate logic and critical thinking students. Explaining J. L. Mackie’s notion of INUS conditions—insufficient but necessary parts of unnecessary but sufficient conditions—is an even more difficult concept to understand. It is helpful to have memorable examples that not only clarify the concept, but make it easy to remember. Law student turned stand-up comedian Demetri Martin uses necessary, sufficient, and INUS conditions to construct absurdist jokes. These jokes provide effective tools for making Mackie’s notion understandable and memorable.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
DOI
10.5840/inquiryct202312115
Version
Version of Record
Recommended Citation
Gimbel, Steven. “Mackie, Martin, and INUS in the Morning: Explaining Mackie’s INUS Conditions through the Humor of Demetri Martin.” Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 33, no. 2 (December 14, 2023). https://doi.org/10.5840/inquiryct202312115.
Required Publisher's Statement
This article is available from the publisher's website.