Early on in MB, before Queequeg's and Ishmael's homoerotic relationships, there's a good old puritanical sermon. Father Maple claims this:
"Now Jonah's Captain, shipmates, was one whose discernment detects crime in any, but whose cupidity exposes it only in the penniless. In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers. So Jonah's Captain prepares to test the length of Jonah's purse, ere he judge him openly."
So, the argument:
J implies P
S implies F
:./
(V implies P) implies ~F
J = judges openly and encapsulates the first sentence
P = pauper, poor, penniless
S = Sin
F = free
V = virtue
Do you think this works? Or do could we say for sin ~V so that we don't have this floating variable?
Good fun. Remember that the variables in propositional logic represent not terms but propositions. So spell out what proposition each of your variables represents, so we can check the standard form translation and run a proof. If Father Maple is making an argument here, it will be interesting to see how it works.
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