Monday, April 23, 2018

Converse

Pedro noticed a few grey strands in the mane of his teacher. Immediately, he reached out to pull one of them. He was reprimanded, ‘plucking grey hairs make more grow back.’ Nevertheless, Pedro pulled out a few strands of hair.

His teacher was furious, ‘How dare you? Do you want my hair to turn white?’ Pedro calmly replied, ‘I plucked your black hair to make more of them grow!’


We learnt in school that the converse of a theorem happens when the conclusion and hypothesis of a theorem are switched. For example, if you have a general theorem that says ''if this, then that'', then the converse theorem would say ''if that, then this''.

While all converses may not be true, we need to examine our belief statements for being true as theories as well as their converse. When we scrutinise our beliefs and values, they must match up for consistency for the premise as well as the conclusion.

So often, so many of us flaunt hypothesis that are found wanting when seen in the converse. In social media as well as social transactions, we must ponder whether the validity of our premise stands the converse of the conclusion.

Our beliefs must pass the test of reverse
Premise must be confirmed in converse!


~ Pravin Sabnis

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