title: Legally Blonde

text: "In the real world, the judge in "Legally Blonde" would not have permitted the defendant to fire the Alan Dershowitz-like lawyer in the middle of trial and retain the law student, never mind that no state permits first-year law students to represent clients in court," Wendel wrote. The film cites Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Rule 3.03 as precedent for Woods being able to represent a client while under the supervision of a licensed attorney, but the ruling only applies to third-year law students.


title: Legally Blonde

text: "A first-year law student would never be able to question witnesses in a criminal court. The most she would be doing as a 1L (first-year student) would be research and drafting memos or motions, maybe," said Emma Therrien, a student at Lewis & Clark Law School.


title: Legally Blonde

text: More than 20 years later, the film continues to inspire generations of filmgoers, many of them women who went on to become prospective law students. "At least once a week, I have a woman come up to me and say, 'I went to law school because of "Legally Blonde",'" Witherspoon said. "It's incredible...You can be unapologetically feminine but also smart and driven."


title: Legally Blonde

text: "When I saw the movie I just felt it gave me like a real surge of motivation because I really identified with her," Layla Summers, a family law attorney, told Spectrum News. "I think the movie is still very relevant," she added. "Just being a girl and being a woman, the odds are stacked against you still...When I watch the movie now I feel like I'm part of a great club of powerful professional women, like a sorority."


title: Legally Blonde

text: "When I got to law school, on the toughest days, I would pop in the movie and get a good laugh," Shalyn Smith, a California law student and sorority president, said in an interview with "People" magazine."Elle embodies fighting for what is right, staying true to yourself, and defeating the odds. It's crazy that one movie can do that, you know?"


title: Legally Blonde

text: Entertainment reporter Lucy Ford revealed to Witherspoon during an interview in 2018 that she had written her college dissertation on the film and presented her a pink-ribbon bound copy.


title: Legally Blonde

text: The "Legally Blonde" soundtrack includes music from Vanessa Carlton, Samantha Mumba, Superchick, and Hoku, who sings the opening song, "Perfect Day."


title: Legally Blonde

text: "No one really knew that "Legally Blonde" was going to be what it was, Literally, [my label heads] were like, 'This movie's not going to become anything.' And then the next thing you know, it's like, this iconic movie. And my song opens it!" Hoku said in an interview with "Billboard". "Sitting in the premiere and hearing my song open the movie, and everyone's cheering – it felt like, 'I've really arrived now, folks.'"


title: Legally Blonde

text: The success of the film spawned a sequel, "", a musical, one straight-to-home video release starring British twins Camilla and Rebecca Rosso, "Legally Blondes", and a third theatrical film in development, with Mindy Kaling and Dan Goor announced as writers.


title: Legally Blonde

text: In April 2007, a musical adaptation premiered on Broadway to mixed reviews, starring Laura Bell Bundy as Elle, Christian Borle as Emmett, Orfeh as Paulette, Nikki Snelson as Brooke, Richard H. Blake as Warner, Kate Shindle as Vivienne, and Michael Rupert as Callahan, running until October 19, 2008. The show, Bundy, Borle, and Orfeh were all nominated for Tony Awards. Later, the Broadway show was the focus of an MTV reality-TV series called "", in which the winner would take over the role of Elle on Broadway. Bailey Hanks from Anderson, South Carolina, won the competition.


title: Legally Blonde

text: "Legally Blonde" also had a three-year run at the Savoy Theatre in London's West End, starring Sheridan Smith, Susan McFadden, and Carley Stenson as Elle, and Duncan James, Richard Fleeshman, Simon Thomas, and Ben Freeman as Warner. During its run, the cast also included Alex Gaumond, Denise Van Outen, and Lee Mead.


title: Gary Sinise

text: Gary Alan Sinise (; born March 17, 1955) is an American actor, humanitarian, and musician. Among other awards, he has won a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was nominated for an Academy Award. Sinise has also received numerous awards and honors for his extensive humanitarian work and involvement with charitable organizations. He is a supporter of various veterans' organizations and founded the Lt. Dan Band (named after his character in "Forrest Gump"), which plays at military bases around the world.


title: Gary Sinise

text: Sinise's acting career started on stage with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1983 when he directed and starred in a production of Sam Shepard's "True West" for which he earned an Obie Award. He would later earn four Tony Award nominations including for his performances in "The Grapes of Wrath" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". He earned the Tony Award's Regional Theatre Award alongside the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.


title: Gary Sinise

text: Sinise first starred in the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's classic novel ""Of Mice and Men"" which he also directed and produced. Sinise played George Milton alongside John Malkovich who played Lennie. Subsequent roles include Lieutenant Dan Taylor in "Forrest Gump" (1994) for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also appeared in films such as Ron Howard's "Apollo 13" (1995), "Ransom" (1996), Frank Darabont's "The Green Mile" (1999) and "Impostor" (2002).


title: Gary Sinise

text: He is also known for his television performances as Harry S. Truman in "Truman" (1995), for which he won a Golden Globe, and the title role in the television film "George Wallace", for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award. He later had leading roles as Detective Mac Taylor in the CBS series "" (2004–13), from 2016 to 2017, Sinise starred as Special Agent in "."


title: Gary Sinise

text: Sinise was born in Blue Island, Illinois, son of Robert L. Sinise (born 1931), a film editor, and Mylles (Alsip) Sinise. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, Sinise's great-grandfather Vito Sinisi having emigrated from Ripacandida, in the Italian region of Basilicata. Sinise briefly attended Glenbard West High School in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and later graduated from Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Illinois.


title: Gary Sinise

text: In 1974, Sinise and two friends, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry, founded the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Since then, Steppenwolf has showcased the talents of notable actors such as Joan Allen, Kevin Anderson, Gary Cole, Ethan Hawke, Glenne Headly, John Mahoney, John Malkovich, Laurie Metcalf, Martha Plimpton, Jim True-Frost, and William Petersen. Sinise honed his acting and directing skills at Steppenwolf, and received a Joseph Jefferson Award for his direction of Lyle Kessler's play "Orphans". That took him from Chicago to New York City, and then to London's West End, where he worked on more than thirty of the company's productions.


title: Gary Sinise

text: In 1982, Sinise's career began to take off when he directed and starred in Steppenwolf's production of "True West". In 1983, he earned an Obie Award for his direction, and a year later appeared with John Malkovich in the PBS' "American Playhouse" production of the play. In 1988, Sinise directed "Miles from Home", a film starring Richard Gere, about two brothers' fight against the foreclosure of the family farm. Sinise collaborated with fellow actor Tom Hanks three times, including "Forrest Gump", "Apollo 13", and "The Green Mile". Other noteworthy films in which Sinise has appeared include "Of Mice and Men" (which he directed), "Reindeer Games", "Snake Eyes", "Ransom", "Mission to Mars", "The Stand" and "Impostor". He narrated the audiobooks for John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley".


title: Gary Sinise

text: In 2004, he began his first regular television series, in the crime drama "", in which he plays Detective Mac Taylor. He was credited as a producer from season two onwards and wrote the storyline of an episode. Several episodes have allowed Sinise to demonstrate his musical prowess, including a season-two episode where Mac Taylor plays the bass guitar in a jazz club with musicians Kimo and Carol Williams and Danny Gottlieb, members of the Lt. Dan Band, which Sinise and Kimo Williams co-founded in 2003. The band is named for Sinise's character in "Forrest Gump".


title: Gary Sinise

text: Apart from his television and movie work, Sinise used to be the host in the video for the Epcot ride , at Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida, and a model for Baume & Mercier watches. He co-founded Operation Iraqi Children. Sinise said, "Iraq is in the news every day, and most of it is bad. But there are some positive stories. And how our soldiers are rebuilding schools and helping kids is one of them."


title: Gary Sinise

text: Sinise was the narrator for the Discovery Channel's miniseries "When We Left Earth" in 2008. He was awarded the Presidential Citizen Medal by George W. Bush for work he did supporting the U.S. military and humanitarian work supporting Iraqi children. He narrated Army and Army Reserve Army Strong recruitment ads in late 2008. He is also the national spokesperson for the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial.


title: Gary Sinise

text: Sinise is the executive producer—along with David Scantling—of the Iraq War documentary "Brothers at War". The film features an American military family and the experiences of three brothers: Jake Rademacher, Isaac Rademacher, and Joseph Rademacher.


title: Gary Sinise

text: In November 2009, Sinise narrated the highly acclaimed "World War II in HD" on the History Channel. In 2010, he narrated the World War II documentary "Missions That Changed The War" on the Military Channel. In late 2002, he started the Cadillac commercials starting with the 2002–2003 Season's Best commercial and has been with the Break Through campaign since it started the campaign in the 2002 Super Bowl with Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" then ended in late 2006. In 2009, Sinise lent his voice talents in the Thomas Nelson audio Bible production known as "The Word of Promise", playing the character of David.


title: Gary Sinise

text: On April 17, 2017, Sinise received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in the television industry, located at 6664 Hollywood Boulevard.


title: Gary Sinise

text: On October 30, 2017, Sinise was selected as Grand Marshal of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade, which took place on January 1, 2018.


title: Gary Sinise

text: Sinise married actress Moira Harris in 1981. They have three children. In 2003, Sinise was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Amherst College. He was awarded the U.S. Presidential Citizens Medal by President George W. Bush in 2008.


title: Gary Sinise

text: Sinise is a devoted fan of the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago Bears. He also is a fan of the band Kansas.


title: Gary Sinise

text: Sinise is a practicing Catholic. He converted to the faith on December 24, 2010. His wife, Moira, converted in 2000.


title: Gary Sinise

text: In 2005, Sinise founded Friends of Abe, a support and networking group for conservative members of Hollywood.


title: Gary Sinise

text: Sinise's name was in an advertisement in the "Los Angeles Times" (August 17, 2006) that condemned Hamas and Hezbollah and supported Israel in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. In June 2008, Sinise donated $2,300 to the Republican presidential primary campaign of Arizona Senator John McCain. Nicolle Wallace, a former adviser to George W. Bush and McCain's campaign adviser, stated in May 2009 that she believed Sinise could help bring about a resurgence of the Republican Party. Wallace stated, "The natural strengths that an actor brings to politics would come in handy to anyone going up against Obama in 2012. We will need an effective communicator who can stand toe to toe with Obama's eloquence." Other names mentioned were those of Generals David Petraeus and Ray Odierno. Sinise narrates the online virtual tour for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and spoke at the centennial celebration of Ronald Reagan's birth at the library in February 2011.


title: Gary Sinise

text: In September 2012, Sinise donated to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Sinise's Republican-leaning has been written into the character of Mac Taylor (played by Sinise on ), who has a picture of Reagan displayed in his office and was once the subject of a joke by one of his colleagues about an eight-hour Reagan documentary he watched over and over.


title: Gary Sinise

text: In spite of being a lifelong supporter of the Republican Party, Sinise refused to endorse or vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, and also criticized Trump after the then-candidate questioned McCain's status as a war hero because he was captured as a prisoner of war.


title: Gary Sinise

text: Sinise is a supporter of various veterans' organizations, both personally and through the Lt. Dan Band. He frequently performs on USO tours at military bases around the world, and volunteered for the National Vietnam Veterans Arts Museum now called the National Veterans Art Museum.


title: Gary Sinise

text: Sinise is also on the Advisory Council of Hope For The Warriors, a national nonprofit dedicated to provide a full cycle of nonmedical care to combat-wounded service members, their families, and families of the fallen from each military branch. Sinise narrates the audiobook of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," which was released on April 13, 2011. In December 2011, Sinise was the narrator at the Candelight Processional at Disneyland.


title: Gary Sinise

text: In August 2012, Sinise was honored at the United States Navy Memorial, by Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) Rick West, and was made an honorary U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer for his efforts in helping veterans. On August 29, 2013, he was named an honorary Marine by the Commandant of the Marine Corps. In 2006, Sinise began co-hosting the National Memorial Day Concert on the Mall in Washington, D.C., with actor and Illinois native Joe Mantegna.


title: Gary Sinise

text: He serves as the national spokesperson for the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial and spends much of his time raising awareness for the memorial and other veterans' service organizations. In 2012, he was honored by the Joe Foss Institute for his dedication to veterans.


title: Gary Sinise

text: In 2013, he was awarded the third highest honor within the Department of the Army Civilian Awards, the Outstanding Civilian Service Award, for substantial contributions to the U.S. Army community through his work with the Gary Sinise Foundation. Each year the foundation raises over $30 million which it uses to benefit military veterans, including building smart homes for those who are disabled. He participated in Troopathon VI for 2013, as he has in the past, to help raise money for care packages for American troops.


title: Gary Sinise

text: He received the 2015 Sylvanus Thayer Award, awarded by the West Point Association of Graduates to a non-West Point graduate whose character, service, and achievements reflect the ideals prized by the U.S. Military Academy.


title: Gary Sinise

text: In 2019 a video went viral of Gary Sinise reacting to a video of active duty service men and women, veterans, first responders, their families, and Colin Powell, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Ron Howard, Steve Buscemi, Jay Leno, Tim Allen, Rob Lowe, Judd Apatow and Robin Roberts giving thanks to Sinise for all his humanitarian work.


title: Gary Sinise

text: In 2020, the Location Managers Guild honored Sinise with its Humanitarian award at their annual awards ceremony in recognition of the work he does with the Gary Sinise Foundation. In accepting the award. Sinise read a quote from President Calvin Coolidge saying, ""The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten"".


title: Gary Sinise

text: On April 16, 2021, Sinise hosted the inauguration ceremony of the World War I memorial in Washington D.C.


title: Gary Sinise

text: Over the years, Sinise has received numerous honors for his humanitarian work and his work on behalf of military veterans and families.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: Kevin Ferguson (February 8, 1974 – June 6, 2016), better known as Kimbo Slice, was a Bahamian-American mixed martial artist, boxer, bare-knuckle boxer, professional wrestler, and actor. He became noted for his role in mutual combat street fight videos which were spread online, leading "Rolling Stone" to call him "The King of the Web Brawlers".


title: Kimbo Slice

text: Slice left the underground fighting scene and signed a professional contract with EliteXC in 2007. He competed in "", where he lost in his first fight to eventual series winner Roy Nelson. In his UFC debut, Slice defeated Houston Alexander in "The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights" finale. In January 2015, he signed a contract with Bellator MMA. He died suddenly in 2016.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: Kimbo Slice was born Kevin Ferguson in Nassau on February 8, 1974. He moved to the U.S. as a child and grew up in Cutler Ridge, Florida. He was raised with his brother Devon and sister Renea by his mother Rosemary Clarke. He went to Bel-Air Elementary School, where he was reportedly involved in his first fight with fellow student Dominic Sauer at the age of 13 as he tried to defend a friend. Ferguson continued his studies at Cutler Ridge Middle School and later attended Richmond Heights Middle School. He attended Miami Palmetto High School, where he was the star middle linebacker. In 1992, his house in Perrine, Florida was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew, forcing him to live in his 1987 Nissan Pathfinder for a month.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: For college, Ferguson attended both Bethune-Cookman University and the University of Miami, where he held an athletic scholarship and studied criminal justice. He was there for a year and a half. In 1997, he had a tryout with the Miami Dolphins and was part of the pre-season squad but was unable to secure a spot on the first team. Slice's cousin is United States judoka Rhadi Ferguson.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: Ferguson started working as a bouncer for a strip club until high school friend and career-long manager, Mike Imber, offered him a job as a limousine driver and bodyguard for RK Netmedia, better known as Reality Kings, a Miami-based pornography production/promotion company responsible for a number of popular adult subscription websites. Ferguson maintained close ties with Reality Kings throughout the rest of his life; company representatives accompanied him, as his fight entourage, under the name Team Kimbo.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: In 2002, he was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and in 2003, he began his career in unsanctioned mutual combat street fights. They were distributed through the Internet, mainly through the adult website SublimeDirectory and various other video platforms. In his first taped fight against a man named Big D, Ferguson left a large cut on his opponent's right eye which led Internet fans to call him Slice, becoming the last name to his already popular childhood nickname, Kimbo.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: In 2005, Slice started training in martial arts at the Freestyle Fighting Academy under Marcos Avellan and David Avellan. At first, Slice was training exclusively for street boxing, focusing on bare-knuckle techniques, dirty boxing from the clinch, and elbows — but then he began to develop an interest for MMA. Slice signed to make his MMA debut against former WBO Heavyweight champion and Olympic gold-medalist boxer Ray Mercer at Cage Fury Fighting Championships 5, in Atlantic City on June 23, 2007. A month prior to the fight, Slice switched camps and was trained by retired MMA fighter Bas Rutten and boxing instructor Randy Khatami at Rutten's school, EliteMMA, in Thousand Oaks, California.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: Slice made his MMA debut against Mercer at "Cage Fury Fighting Championships 5", in Atlantic City on June 23, 2007. The match was scheduled as a three-round exhibition utilizing all professional rules of MMA combat. Slice defeated Mercer with a guillotine choke at 1:12 into the first round. CFFC V sold 20,000 ppv buys In a post-fight interview, Slice stated that he would like to fight David "Tank" Abbott. Abbott, who was a spectator, stood up from his seat and accepted the call out. One of the matchmakers for CFFC asked Slice for his assurance so that an October 12 bout at Cage Fury Fighting Championships 6 between Slice and "Tank" Abbott could be organized. This event was later canceled due to a promotion dispute. On October 11, 2007, ProElite announced that they had signed Slice to a deal and that he would make his debut on the November 10, 2007 EliteXC. He was originally set to make his professional MMA debut against Mike Bourke, a reformed street fighter, but a shoulder injury from Bourke led him to face Bo Cantrell. Slice defeated Cantrell 19 seconds into the first round by submission due to strikes.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: On February 16, 2008, Slice fought Tank Abbott in the main event at "". He won by KO 43 seconds into the first round due to strikes. At the fight, his weight was announced at an all-time low of , a far cry from his street fighting days of .


title: Kimbo Slice

text: On May 31, 2008, Slice fought in the main event of the first ever mixed martial arts event shown on prime time network television, "". Though one of the judges had each fighter winning one of the first two rounds, Slice's opponent James Thompson won both on total points by repeatedly taking down Slice and grounding and pounding. In the opening seconds of the third round, however, Slice threw a haymaker to Thompson's left ear, which ruptured Thompson's cauliflower. This was soon followed by three unanswered punches to a standing Thompson, which led to a referee stoppage and the controversial win for Slice. Fellow EliteXC competitor Brett Rogers was particularly critical of Slice's victory, calling Slice's performance "garbage" in a post fight interview. Frank Mir was also a critic of Slice, stating in an interview that "every time Kimbo Slice fights, it sets (mixed martial arts) back".


title: Kimbo Slice

text: On October 4, 2008, a Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock fight was supposed to take place at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida as part of CBS' "Saturday Night Fights". However, Shamrock received a cut to the left eye during a warm-up only hours before the fight was to take place. This left the head of fight operations, Jeremy Lappen, to choose a replacement for the fight. Options were Seth Petruzelli, Aaron Rosa and Frank Shamrock. Slice's team stated they did not want him fighting Frank no matter how much money was offered to them, so Lappen decided that Petruzelli was the best option for the main event. Slice agreed to take the fight after receiving a raise in pay, and took in $500,000. Petruzelli defeated Slice by TKO 14 seconds into the first round of the bout.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: Interviewed on Orlando radio show "The Monsters in the Morning" two days after the fight, Seth Petruzelli said that when they offered him a spot in the main event, EliteXC promoters added monetary incentives to dissuade him from using certain fighting techniques against Slice, in an attempt to protect their relatively unproven Internet star.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: This added to the controversy surrounding the representation of Slice as a top flight martial artist by CBS and EliteXC. The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation started a preliminary investigation on the events surrounding the fight and its outcome.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: However, Petruzelli retracted this statement a few hours later, claiming in a follow-up interview with MMA website "FiveOuncesofPain.com" that his previous comments on "The Monsters" had been misinterpreted.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: On October 23, 2008, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation concluded its investigation of the bout and found no wrongdoing. By the end of October 2008, EliteXC was forced to file for bankruptcy. Many in the mixed martial arts community, including Jay Thompson, executive consultant to the company, attributed EliteXC and ProElite's failure due to Slice's loss to Seth Petruzelli.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: After Elite Xtreme Combat ceased operations, Dana White stated that if Slice wanted to compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship he would have to win his way in by competing on "The Ultimate Fighter" TV show. White went on to say that he might create a show with heavyweights just for Kimbo Slice if he wanted in. That statement became reality on June 1, when Kevin Iole of Yahoo.com stated Slice would participate in "".


title: Kimbo Slice

text: The coaches for the show were Quinton Jackson and Rashad Evans, both former UFC Light Heavyweight Champions. Slice was the number one pick for coach Rampage and the second pick overall. In his first fight of the show, Slice was defeated by Roy Nelson via TKO stoppage in the second round after repeated punches to the head in the crucifix position. Slice later turned down the opportunity to take Matt Mitrione's place in the quarter finals after it was revealed that he had arthritis in his knee.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: Slice fought Houston Alexander on December 5, 2009, at "The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights Finale" at a catchweight of 215 pounds. In a fight that many thought would not leave the first round, Alexander would instead spend most of the first and third rounds circling Slice tentatively with little engagement. In the second round, however, Slice managed to land punches that visibly hurt Alexander, and even took him down a couple of times including slamming Alexander on his upper body, which very well may have tipped the judges' scorecards in his favor. Slice would win the bout by unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, and 30–27) and Alexander would be cut from the promotion only days later.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: On May 8, 2010, Slice made his pay-per-view and official heavyweight debut at UFC 113 versus Matt Mitrione, losing in the second round via a TKO. Following the loss, Dana White stated that it was "probably Kimbo's last fight in the UFC". His release was confirmed the following day, alongside welterweight Paul Daley.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: On January 16, 2015, nearly five years since his last MMA fight, Bellator MMA announced that Slice had signed a multi-fight deal. He defeated Ken Shamrock by first-round TKO in his June 19 debut at Bellator 138. Some observers noted the fight appeared to be fixed, like a professional wrestling match. Bellator commentator Jimmy Smith accredited the fight looking as it did to Shamrock's lack of technique and durability, and said if it was fixed, Bellator wasn't in on the deal.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: On February 19, 2016, at , Slice faced Dada 5000. The duo had a big rivalry between them due to their old street fight legacies they had in Perrine, Florida. In the first round, both fighters gassed out almost immediately, and Slice went on to win an uneventful fight via TKO when Dada collapsed from apparent exhaustion in the third round. Following the bout it was reported that Slice had failed his pre-fight drug test. Lab results found traces of the anabolic steroid nandrolone. He was also found to have an elevated testosterone/epitestosterone (T/E) ratio of 6.4:1, which is above the maximum allowed limit of 4:1. On May 2, 2016, it was revealed that Slice had settled with the Texas Athletic Commission with a fine of $2,500 and a revoking of his license in the state of Texas. The result of the bout has also been changed to a no contest. Despite being widely panned by critics, the fight attracted approximately 2.5 million viewing households, breaking the Bellator record of 2.4 million, set by Kimbo vs Shamrock.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: In April 2016, Bellator President Scott Coker announced on ESPN's SportsCenter that Slice would have a rematch against James Thompson in the main event of Bellator 158, which would take place on July 16, 2016 at London's O2 Arena. Slice died of heart failure before this fight could happen.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: In August 2010, Slice announced his intention to become a professional boxer. He stated "I feel like a baby all over again. I'm thinking about this at night. I'm gonna be a problem in the heavyweight division. I'm going to be coming in with a bad demeanor. I want to see what it's like to break some ribs, break a jaw with one punch. This is a career move. I love fighting. I like to knock people the fuck out. I love engaging. Maybe some people think I'm crazy."


title: Kimbo Slice

text: Roy Jones Jr. had said he would like to fight Slice, but that Slice would likely need a number of boxing matches beforehand in order to gain experience and exposure in the sport.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: Slice made his pro boxing debut on August 13, 2011. Slice fought in a four-round headlining attraction against 39-year-old James Wade (0-1) at the Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Oklahoma.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: On October 15, Slice returned to the boxing ring, defeating Tay Bledsoe (2-3) via KO in the first round. On December 30, he defeated Charles Hackmann (0-1) by unanimous decision, winning three out of four rounds.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: Slice's next fight was in Australia on the Anthony Mundine vs Daniel Geale undercard on January 30, 2013. He defeated Shane Tilyard (6-6) by TKO in the second round.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: Slice was to make his debut in professional wrestling on February 5, 2011, against former sumo wrestler Shinichi Suzukawa at the Inoki Genome Federation's "Genome 14" event in Fukuoka, Japan; he pulled out of the match due to getting injured during practice.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: A series called "Junk Yard Training" was released on yardbarker.com and youtube.com that featured LaDainian Tomlinson, running back for the San Diego Chargers, training in Kimbo's backyard. In 2009, Kimbo starred in an antivirus software advertisement called "Caterpillar vs. Kimbo".


title: Kimbo Slice

text: Slice was featured on "The Iron Ring", a television series airing on BET that features MMA prospects. Slice was part of the selection process for the participants. He made his official acting debut when playing the character Bludge on Nickelodeon's 2008 holiday special, "Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh". He also played an inmate named JC in 2009's fighting film "Blood and Bone".


title: Kimbo Slice

text: In May 1994, Slice married L. Shontae, the mother of his children RaeChelle, Kevin II, and Kevinah. From this union, there are also three grandsons named Kevin III, Akieno, and Kimbo-Legacy, as well as one granddaughter named Isis. Kevin Jr. is also a mixed martial artist. Slice also had a son named Kevlar and a daughter named Kassandra. He also had two stepdaughters named Rae'Chelle (by his first wife) and Kiara. Before he died, he enjoyed spending time with two of his grandsons, K3 and JuJu (Akieno). Kimbo-Legacy and Isis were both born after Slice's death. At the time of his death, he was engaged to his long-time girlfriend.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: On June 5, 2016, Slice was admitted to a hospital in Margate, Florida. He died of heart failure a day later, at the age of 42. An autopsy also revealed a mass on his liver.


title: Kimbo Slice

text: Scott Coker, CEO of Bellator MMA, said, "We are all shocked and saddened by the devastating and untimely loss of Kimbo Slice, a beloved member of the Bellator family."


title: Politics

text: Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies politics and government is referred to as political science.


title: Politics

text: It may be used positively in the context of a "political solution" which is compromising and nonviolent, or descriptively as "the art or science of government", but also often carries a negative connotation. The concept has been defined in various ways, and different approaches have fundamentally differing views on whether it should be used extensively or limitedly, empirically or normatively, and on whether conflict or co-operation is more essential to it.


title: Politics

text: A variety of methods are deployed in politics, which include promoting one's own political views among people, negotiation with other political subjects, making laws, and exercising internal and external force, including warfare against adversaries. Politics is exercised on a wide range of social levels, from clans and tribes of traditional societies, through modern local governments, companies and institutions up to sovereign states, to the international level.


title: Politics

text: In modern nation states, people often form political parties to represent their ideas. Members of a party often agree to take the same position on many issues and agree to support the same changes to law and the same leaders. An election is usually a competition between different parties.


title: Politics

text: A political system is a framework which defines acceptable political methods within a society. The history of political thought can be traced back to early antiquity, with seminal works such as Plato's "Republic" and Aristotle's "Politics" in the West, and Confucius's political manuscripts and Chanakya's "Arthashastra" in the non-Western cultures.


title: Politics

text: The English "politics" has its roots in the name of Aristotle's classic work, "Politiká", which introduced the Greek term ()"." In the mid-15th century, Aristotle's composition would be rendered in Early Modern English as , which would become "Politics" in Modern English.


title: Politics

text: The singular "politic" first attested in English in 1430, coming from Middle French —itself taking from , a Latinization of the Greek () from () and ().


title: Politics

text: Adrian Leftwich has differentiated views of politics based on how extensive or limited their perception of what accounts as 'political' is. The extensive view sees politics as present across the sphere of human social relations, while the limited view restricts it to certain contexts. For example, in a more restrictive way, politics may be viewed as primarily about governance, while a feminist perspective could argue that sites which have been viewed traditionally as non-political, should indeed be viewed as political as well. This latter position is encapsulated in the slogan ""the personal is political"," which disputes the distinction between private and public issues. Politics may also be defined by the use of power, as has been argued by Robert A. Dahl.


title: Politics

text: Some perspectives on politics view it empirically as an exercise of power, while others see it as a social function with a normative basis. This distinction has been called the difference between political "moralism" and political "realism""." For moralists, politics is closely linked to ethics, and is at its extreme in utopian thinking. For example, according to Hannah Arendt, the view of Aristotle was that "to be political…meant that everything was decided through words and persuasion and not through violence;" while according to Bernard Crick "politics is the way in which free societies are governed. Politics is politics and other forms of rule are something else." In contrast, for realists, represented by those such as Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, and Harold Lasswell, politics is based on the use of power, irrespective of the ends being pursued.


title: Politics

text: Agonism argues that politics essentially comes down to conflict between conflicting interests. Political scientist Elmer Schattschneider argued that "at the root of all politics is the universal language of conflict," while for Carl Schmitt the essence of politics is the distinction of 'friend' from foe'. This is in direct contrast to the more co-operative views of politics by Aristotle and Crick. However, a more mixed view between these extremes is provided by Irish political scientist Michael Laver, who noted that:Politics is about the characteristic blend of conflict and co-operation that can be found so often in human interactions. Pure conflict is war. Pure co-operation is true love. Politics is a mixture of both.


title: Politics

text: Frans de Waal argued that chimpanzees engage in politics through "social manipulation to secure and maintain influential positions." Early human forms of social organization—bands and tribes—lacked centralized political structures. These are sometimes referred to as stateless societies.


title: Politics

text: In ancient history, civilizations did not have definite boundaries as states have today, and their borders could be more accurately described as frontiers. Early dynastic Sumer, and early dynastic Egypt were the first civilizations to define their borders. Moreover, up to the 12th century, many people lived in non-state societies. These range from relatively egalitarian bands and tribes to complex and highly stratified chiefdoms.


title: Politics

text: There are a number of different theories and hypotheses regarding early state formation that seek generalizations to explain why the state developed in some places but not others. Other scholars believe that generalizations are unhelpful and that each case of early state formation should be treated on its own.


title: Politics

text: Voluntary theories contend that diverse groups of people came together to form states as a result of some shared rational interest. The theories largely focus on the development of agriculture, and the population and organizational pressure that followed and resulted in state formation. One of the most prominent theories of early and primary state formation is the "hydraulic hypothesis", which contends that the state was a result of the need to build and maintain large-scale irrigation projects.


title: Politics

text: Conflict theories of state formation regard conflict and dominance of some population over another population as key to the formation of states. In contrast with voluntary theories, these arguments believe that people do not voluntarily agree to create a state to maximize benefits, but that states form due to some form of oppression by one group over others. Some theories in turn argue that warfare was critical for state formation.


title: Politics

text: The first states of sorts were those of early dynastic Sumer and early dynastic Egypt, which arose from the Uruk period and Predynastic Egypt respectively around approximately 3000 BCE. Early dynastic Egypt was based around the Nile River in the north-east of Africa, the kingdom's boundaries being based around the Nile and stretching to areas where oases existed. Early dynastic Sumer was located in southern Mesopotamia with its borders extending from the Persian Gulf to parts of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.


title: Politics

text: Egyptians, Romans, and the Greeks were the first people known to have explicitly formulated a political philosophy of the state, and to have rationally analyzed political institutions. Prior to this, states were described and justified in terms of religious myths.


title: Politics

text: Several important political innovations of classical antiquity came from the Greek city-states ("polis") and the Roman Republic. The Greek city-states before the 4th century granted citizenship rights to their free population; in Athens these rights were combined with a directly democratic form of government that was to have a long afterlife in political thought and history.


title: Politics

text: The Peace of Westphalia (1648) is considered by political scientists to be the beginning of the modern international system, in which external powers should avoid interfering in another country's domestic affairs. The principle of non-interference in other countries' domestic affairs was laid out in the mid-18th century by Swiss jurist Emer de Vattel. States became the primary institutional agents in an interstate system of relations. The Peace of Westphalia is said to have ended attempts to impose supranational authority on European states. The "Westphalian" doctrine of states as independent agents was bolstered by the rise in 19th century thought of nationalism, under which legitimate states were assumed to correspond to "nations"—groups of people united by language and culture.


title: Politics

text: In Europe, during the 18th century, the classic non-national states were the multinational empires: the Austrian Empire, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of Hungary, the Russian Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the British Empire. Such empires also existed in Asia, Africa, and the Americas; in the Muslim world, immediately after the death of Muhammad in 632, Caliphates were established, which developed into multi-ethnic trans-national empires. The multinational empire was an absolute monarchy ruled by a king, emperor or sultan. The population belonged to many ethnic groups, and they spoke many languages. The empire was dominated by one ethnic group, and their language was usually the language of public administration. The ruling dynasty was usually, but not always, from that group. Some of the smaller European states were not so ethnically diverse, but were also dynastic states, ruled by a royal house. A few of the smaller states survived, such as the independent principalities of Liechtenstein, Andorra, Monaco, and the republic of San Marino.


title: Politics

text: Most theories see the nation state as a 19th-century European phenomenon, facilitated by developments such as state-mandated education, mass literacy, and mass media. However, historians also note the early emergence of a relatively unified state and identity in Portugal and the Dutch Republic. Scholars such as Steven Weber, David Woodward, Michel Foucault, and Jeremy Black have advanced the hypothesis that the nation state did not arise out of political ingenuity or an unknown undetermined source, nor was it an accident of history or political invention. Rather, the nation state is an inadvertent byproduct of 15th-century intellectual discoveries in political economy, capitalism, mercantilism, political geography, and geography combined with cartography and advances in map-making technologies.


title: Politics

text: Some nation states, such as Germany and Italy, came into existence at least partly as a result of political campaigns by nationalists, during the 19th century. In both cases, the territory was previously divided among other states, some of them very small. Liberal ideas of free trade played a role in German unification, which was preceded by a customs union, the Zollverein. National self-determination was a key aspect of United States President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, leading to the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire after the First World War, while the Russian Empire became the Soviet Union after the Russian Civil War. Decolonization lead to the creation of new nation states in place of multinational empires in the Third World.


title: Politics

text: Political globalization began in the 20th century through intergovernmental organizations and supranational unions. The League of Nations was founded after World War I, and after World War II it was replaced by the United Nations. Various international treaties have been signed through it. Regional integration has been pursued by the African Union, ASEAN, the European Union, and Mercosur. International political institutions on the international level include the International Criminal Court, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization.


title: Politics

text: The study of politics is called political science, or politology. It comprises numerous subfields, including comparative politics, political economy, international relations, political philosophy, public administration, public policy, gender and politics, and political methodology. Furthermore, political science is related to, and draws upon, the fields of economics, law, sociology, history, philosophy, geography, psychology/psychiatry, anthropology, and neurosciences.


title: Politics

text: Comparative politics is the science of comparison and teaching of different types of constitutions, political actors, legislature and associated fields. International relations deals with the interaction between nation-states as well as intergovernmental and transnational organizations. Political philosophy is more concerned with contributions of various classical and contemporary thinkers and philosophers.


title: Politics

text: Political science is methodologically diverse and appropriates many methods originating in psychology, social research, and cognitive neuroscience. Approaches include positivism, interpretivism, rational choice theory, behavioralism, structuralism, post-structuralism, realism, institutionalism, and pluralism. Political science, as one of the social sciences, uses methods and techniques that relate to the kinds of inquiries sought: primary sources such as historical documents and official records, secondary sources such as scholarly journal articles, survey research, statistical analysis, case studies, experimental research, and model building.


title: Politics

text: The political system defines the process for making official government decisions. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems. According to David Easton, "A political system can be designated as the interactions through which values are authoritatively allocated for a society." Each political system is embedded in a society with its own political culture, and they in turn shape their societies through public policy. The interactions between different political systems are the basis for global politics.


title: Politics

text: Forms of government can be classified by several ways. In terms of the structure of power, there are monarchies (including constitutional monarchies) and republics (usually presidential, semi-presidential, or parliamentary).


title: Politics

text: The separation of powers describes the degree of horizontal integration between the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, and other independent institutions.


title: Politics

text: In a democracy, political legitimacy is based on popular sovereignty. Forms of democracy include representative democracy, direct democracy, and demarchy. These are separated by the way decisions are made, whether by elected representatives, referendums, or by citizen juries. Democracies can be either republics or constitutional monarchies.


title: Politics

text: Oligarchy is a power structure where a minority rules. These may be in the form of anocracy, aristocracy, ergatocracy, geniocracy, gerontocracy, kakistocracy, kleptocracy, meritocracy, noocracy, particracy, plutocracy, stratocracy, technocracy, theocracy, or timocracy.


title: Politics

text: In terms of level of vertical integration, political systems can be divided into (from least to most integrated) confederations, federations, and unitary states.


title: Politics

text: A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of power between them and the central government, is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of either party, the states or the federal political body. Federations were formed first in Switzerland, then in the United States in 1776, in Canada in 1867 and in Germany in 1871 and in 1901, Australia. Compared to a federation, a confederation has less centralized power.


title: Politics

text: All the above forms of government are variations of the same basic polity, the sovereign state. The state has been defined by Max Weber as a political entity that has monopoly on violence within its territory, while the Montevideo Convention holds that states need to have a defined territory; a permanent population; a government; and a capacity to enter into international relations.


title: Politics

text: A stateless society is a society that is not governed by a state. In stateless societies, there is little concentration of authority; most positions of authority that do exist are very limited in power and are generally not permanently held positions; and social bodies that resolve disputes through predefined rules tend to be small. Stateless societies are highly variable in economic organization and cultural practices.


title: Politics

text: While stateless societies were the norm in human prehistory, few stateless societies exist today; almost the entire global population resides within the jurisdiction of a sovereign state. In some regions nominal state authorities may be very weak and wield little or no actual power. Over the course of history most stateless peoples have been integrated into the state-based societies around them.


title: Politics

text: Some political philosophies consider the state undesirable, and thus consider the formation of a stateless society a goal to be achieved. A central tenet of anarchism is the advocacy of society without states. The type of society sought for varies significantly between anarchist schools of thought, ranging from extreme individualism to complete collectivism. In Marxism, Marx's theory of the state considers that in a post-capitalist society the state, an undesirable institution, would be unnecessary and wither away. A related concept is that of stateless communism, a phrase sometimes used to describe Marx's anticipated post-capitalist society.


title: Politics

text: Constitutions are written documents that specify and limit the powers of the different branches of government. Although a constitution is a written document, there is also an unwritten constitution. The unwritten constitution is continually being written by the legislative and judiciary branch of government; this is just one of those cases in which the nature of the circumstances determines the form of government that is most appropriate. England did set the fashion of written constitutions during the Civil War but after the Restoration abandoned them to be taken up later by the American Colonies after their emancipation and then France after the Revolution and the rest of Europe including the European colonies.


title: Politics

text: Constitutions often set out separation of powers, dividing the government into the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary (together referred to as the trias politica), in order to achieve checks and balances within the state. Additional independent branches may also be created, including civil service commissions, election commissions, and supreme audit institutions.


title: Politics

text: Political culture describes how culture impacts politics. Every political system is embedded in a particular political culture. Lucian Pye's definition is that "Political culture is the set of attitudes, beliefs, and sentiments, which give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system".


title: Politics

text: Trust is a major factor in political culture, as its level determines the capacity of the state to function. Postmaterialism is the degree to which a political culture is concerned with issues which are not of immediate physical or material concern, such as human rights and environmentalism. Religion has also an impact on political culture.


title: Politics

text: Political corruption is the use of powers for illegitimate private gain, conducted by government officials or their network contacts. Forms of political corruption include bribery, cronyism, nepotism, and political patronage. Forms of political patronage, in turn, includes clientelism, earmarking, pork barreling, slush funds, and spoils systems; as well as political machines, which is a political system that operates for corrupt ends.


title: Politics

text: When corruption is embedded in political culture, this may be referred to as patrimonialism or neopatrimonialism. A form of government that is built on corruption is called a "kleptocracy" ('rule of thieves').


title: Politics

text: Macropolitics can either describe political issues that affect an entire political system (e.g. the nation state), or refer to interactions between political systems (e.g. international relations).


title: Politics

text: Global politics (or world politics) covers all aspects of politics that affect multiple political systems, in practice meaning any political phenomenon crossing national borders. This can include cities, nation-states, multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations, and/or international organizations. An important element is international relations: the relations between nation-states may be peaceful when they are conducted through diplomacy, or they may be violent, which is described as war. States that are able to exert strong international influence are referred to as superpowers, whereas less-powerful ones may be called regional or middle powers. The international system of power is called the "world order", which is affected by the balance of power that defines the degree of polarity in the system. Emerging powers are potentially destabilizing to it, especially if they display revanchism or irredentism.


title: Politics

text: Politics inside the limits of political systems, which in contemporary context correspond to national borders, are referred to as domestic politics. This includes most forms of public policy, such as social policy, economic policy, or law enforcement, which are executed by the state bureaucracy.


title: Politics

text: Mesopolitics describes the politics of intermediary structures within a political system, such as national political parties or movements.


title: Politics

text: A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to attain and maintain political power within government, usually by participating in political campaigns, educational outreach, or protest actions. Parties often espouse an expressed ideology or vision, bolstered by a written platform with specific goals, forming a coalition among disparate interests.


title: Politics

text: Political parties within a particular political system together form the party system, which can be either multiparty, two-party, dominant-party, or one-party, depending on the level of pluralism. This is affected by characteristics of the political system, including its electoral system. According to Duverger's law, first-past-the-post systems are likely to lead to two-party systems, while proportional representation systems are more likely to create a multiparty system.


title: Politics

text: Micropolitics describes the actions of individual actors within the political system. This is often described as political participation. Political participation may take many forms, including:


title: Politics

text: Democracy is a system of processing conflicts in which outcomes depend on what participants do, but no single force controls what occurs and its outcomes. The uncertainty of outcomes is inherent in democracy. Democracy makes all forces struggle repeatedly to realize their interests and devolves power from groups of people to sets of rules.


title: Politics

text: Among modern political theorists, there are three contending conceptions of democracy: "aggregative", "deliberative", and "radical".


title: Politics

text: The theory of "aggregative democracy" claims that the aim of the democratic processes is to solicit the preferences of citizens, and aggregate them together to determine what social policies the society should adopt. Therefore, proponents of this view hold that democratic participation should primarily focus on voting, where the policy with the most votes gets implemented.


title: Politics

text: Different variants of aggregative democracy exist. Under "minimalism", democracy is a system of government in which citizens have given teams of political leaders the right to rule in periodic elections. According to this minimalist conception, citizens cannot and should not "rule" because, for example, on most issues, most of the time, they have no clear views or their views are not well-founded. Joseph Schumpeter articulated this view most famously in his book "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy". Contemporary proponents of minimalism include William H. Riker, Adam Przeworski, Richard Posner.


title: Politics

text: According to the theory of "direct democracy", on the other hand, citizens should vote directly, not through their representatives, on legislative proposals. Proponents of direct democracy offer varied reasons to support this view. Political activity can be valuable in itself, it socializes and educates citizens, and popular participation can check powerful elites. Most importantly, citizens do not rule themselves unless they directly decide laws and policies.


title: Politics

text: Governments will tend to produce laws and policies that are close to the views of the median voter—with half to their left and the other half to their right. This is not a desirable outcome as it represents the action of self-interested and somewhat unaccountable political elites competing for votes. Anthony Downs suggests that ideological political parties are necessary to act as a mediating broker between individual and governments. Downs laid out this view in his 1957 book "An Economic Theory of Democracy".


title: Politics

text: Robert A. Dahl argues that the fundamental democratic principle is that, when it comes to binding collective decisions, each person in a political community is entitled to have his/her interests be given equal consideration (not necessarily that all people are equally satisfied by the collective decision). He uses the term polyarchy to refer to societies in which there exists a certain set of institutions and procedures which are perceived as leading to such democracy. First and foremost among these institutions is the regular occurrence of free and open elections which are used to select representatives who then manage all or most of the public policy of the society. However, these polyarchic procedures may not create a full democracy if, for example, poverty prevents political participation. Similarly, Ronald Dworkin argues that "democracy is a substantive, not a merely procedural, ideal."


title: Politics

text: "Deliberative democracy" is based on the notion that democracy is government by deliberation. Unlike aggregative democracy, deliberative democracy holds that, for a democratic decision to be legitimate, it must be preceded by authentic deliberation, not merely the aggregation of preferences that occurs in voting. "Authentic deliberation" is deliberation among decision-makers that is free from distortions of unequal political power, such as power a decision-maker obtained through economic wealth or the support of interest groups. If the decision-makers cannot reach consensus after authentically deliberating on a proposal, then they vote on the proposal using a form of majority rule.


title: Politics

text: "Radical democracy" is based on the idea that there are hierarchical and oppressive power relations that exist in society. Democracy's role is to make visible and challenge those relations by allowing for difference, dissent and antagonisms in decision-making processes.


title: Politics

text: Equality is a state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same social status, especially socioeconomic status, including protection of human rights and dignity, and equal access to certain social goods and social services. Furthermore, it may also include health equality, economic equality and other social securities. Social equality requires the absence of legally enforced social class or caste boundaries and the absence of discrimination motivated by an inalienable part of a person's identity. To this end there must be equal justice under law, and equal opportunity regardless of, for example, sex, gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, origin, caste or class, income or property, language, religion, convictions, opinions, health or disability.


title: Politics

text: A common way of understanding politics is through the left–right political spectrum, which ranges from left-wing politics via centrism to right-wing politics. This classification is comparatively recent and dates from the French Revolution, when those members of the National Assembly who supported the republic, the common people and a secular society sat on the left and supporters of the monarchy, aristocratic privilege and the Church sat on the right.


title: Politics

text: Today, the left is generally progressivist, seeking social progress in society. The more extreme elements of the left, named the far-left, tend to support revolutionary means for achieving this. This includes ideologies such as Communism and Marxism. The center-left, on the other hand, advocate for more reformist approaches, for example that of social democracy.


title: Politics

text: In contrast, the right is generally motivated by conservatism, which seeks to conserve what it sees as the important elements of society. The far-right goes beyond this, and often represents a reactionary turn against progress, seeking to undo it. Examples of such ideologies have included Fascism and Nazism. The center-right may be less clear-cut and more mixed in this regard, with neoconservatives supporting the spread of free markets and capitalism, and one-nation conservatives more open to social welfare programs.


title: Politics

text: According to Norberto Bobbio, one of the major exponents of this distinction, the left believes in attempting to eradicate social inequality—believing it to be unethical or unnatural, while the right regards most social inequality as the result of ineradicable natural inequalities, and sees attempts to enforce social equality as utopian or authoritarian.


title: Politics

text: Some ideologies, notably Christian Democracy, claim to combine left and right-wing politics; according to Geoffrey K. Roberts and Patricia Hogwood, "In terms of ideology, Christian Democracy has incorporated many of the views held by liberals, conservatives and socialists within a wider framework of moral and Christian principles." Movements which claim or formerly claimed to be above the left-right divide include Fascist Terza Posizione economic politics in Italy and Peronism in Argentina.


title: Politics

text: Political freedom (also known as political liberty or autonomy) is a central concept in political thought and one of the most important features of democratic societies. Negative liberty has been described as freedom from oppression or coercion and unreasonable external constraints on action, often enacted through civil and political rights, while positive liberty is the absence of disabling conditions for an individual and the fulfillment of enabling conditions, e.g. economic compulsion, in a society. This capability approach to freedom requires economic, social and cultural rights in order to be realized.


title: Politics

text: Authoritarianism and libertarianism disagree the amount of individual freedom each person possesses in that society relative to the state. One author describes authoritarian political systems as those where "individual rights and goals are subjugated to group goals, expectations and conformities," while libertarians generally oppose the state and hold the individual as sovereign. In their purest form, libertarians are anarchists, who argue for the total abolition of the state, of political parties and of other political entities, while the purest authoritarians are, by definition, totalitarians who support state control over all aspects of society.


title: Politics

text: For instance, classical liberalism (also known as "laissez-faire liberalism") is a doctrine stressing individual freedom and limited government. This includes the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, free markets, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, constitutional limitation of government, and individual freedom from restraint as exemplified in the writings of John Locke, Adam Smith, David Hume, David Ricardo, Voltaire, Montesquieu and others. According to the libertarian Institute for Humane Studies, "the libertarian, or 'classical liberal,' perspective is that individual well-being, prosperity, and social harmony are fostered by 'as much liberty as possible' and 'as little government as necessary.'" For anarchist political philosopher L. Susan Brown (1993), "liberalism and anarchism are two political philosophies that are fundamentally concerned with individual freedom yet differ from one another in very distinct ways. Anarchism shares with liberalism a radical commitment to individual freedom while rejecting liberalism's competitive property relations."


title: Walker (TV series)

text: Walker is an American action crime drama television series developed by Anna Fricke for The CW. It is a reboot of the 1990s western drama television series "Walker, Texas Ranger". The series was ordered straight to series in 2020, with Jared Padalecki playing the titular role. It premiered on January 21, 2021.


title: Walker (TV series)

text: In February 2021, the series was renewed for a second season which premiered on October 28, 2021. In March 2022, the series was renewed for a third season which premiered on October 6, 2022.


title: Walker (TV series)

text: In September 2019, it was announced that a reboot of "Walker, Texas Ranger" starring Jared Padalecki was in development. The CW picked up the project for its 2020–2021 development slate in October 2019. In January 2020, it was announced that The CW had ordered the project directly to series, bypassing a television pilot, and would be titled "Walker". The series is written by Anna Fricke who is also expected to executive produce alongside Dan Lin, Lindsey Liberatore and Padalecki. Production companies involved with the series were slated to consist of CBS Television Studios and Rideback. On February 3, 2021, The CW gave the series an additional five episodes bringing the total episodes for the first season to 18 episodes and renewed the series for a second season. The second season premiered on October 28, 2021. On March 22, 2022, The CW renewed the series for a third season.


title: Walker (TV series)

text: On February 5, 2020, it was announced that Lindsey Morgan had joined "Walker" in the role of Micki, Walker's new partner in the Texas Rangers. The same month, Keegan Allen was cast in the role of Walker's brother, Liam, while Mitch Pileggi and Molly Hagan were cast as Walker's father and mother, Bonham and Abeline, respectively. On February 28, 2020, it was announced that Coby Bell had joined the series, playing the role of Texas Ranger Captain Larry James. On March 4, 2020, Jeff Pierre was cast as a series regular. On March 12, 2020, Violet Brinson and Kale Culley joined the cast as series regulars. On September 14, 2020, Genevieve Padalecki, Jared Padalecki's wife, was cast in a recurring role. On October 30, 2020, Odette Annable was cast in a recurring role. In November 2020, Chris Labadie and Alex Landi joined the cast in recurring roles. On December 4, 2020, Gabriela Flores was cast in a recurring role. On January 7, 2021, Rebekah Graf joined the cast in a recurring capacity. On February 19, 2021, Alex Meneses was cast in a recurring role. On April 29, 2021, it was reported that Odette Annable was promoted as a series regular for the second season. On August 31, 2021, it was announced that Dave Annable joined the cast in a recurring role for the second season.


title: Walker (TV series)

text: On October 22, 2021, it was announced that Mason Thames will have a recurring role as Young Walker. Jalen Thomas Brooks was also cast as Colton Davidson.


title: Walker (TV series)

text: During a meeting on October 15, 2020, the Austin City Council approved an agreement for $141,326 in incentives that would allow the reboot, "Walker", to start filming in Austin. The Texas Film Commission is planning to offer an incentive of $9.3 million.


title: Walker (TV series)

text: "Walker" premiered on January 21, 2021, as part of The CW's 2020–21 television season. In Canada, the series airs on the CTV Drama Channel, simulcast with The CW in the United States. The second season premiered on October 6, 2022.


title: Walker (TV series)

text: In December 2021, it was reported that a prequel series titled, "Walker: Independence", was in development at The CW with Padalecki as executive producer and Fricke as showrunner. A pilot order was confirmed in February 2022. Larry Teng would direct the pilot, Justin Johnson Cortez was cast as a series regular, and Barr was also cast as Hoyt Rawlins. In March 2022, it was announced that Katherine McNamara had been cast in the lead role. She will be portraying Abby Walker, the ancestor of Padalecki's Cordell Walker. Also that month, Lawrence Kao, Greg Hovanessian, Philemon Chambers and Katie Findlay joined the cast as series regulars. In May 2022, The CW picked up the series for a fall premiere and paired it with its parent series in a Thursday time slot. In June 2022, Gabriela Quezada was cast as a series regular. The series premiered on October 6, 2022.


title: Walker (TV series)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has an approval rating of 33% based on 18 critic reviews, with an average rating of 4.93/10. The website's critic consensus states, "Despite decent performances, "Walker" bland storytelling and limited action fails to fill its namesake's butt-kicking boots." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100 based on 8 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Walker (TV series)

text: The "Walker" pilot marked The CW's most-watched telecast since January 30, 2018, and its most-watched season premiere since "The Flash" (season 4) in October 2017. The premiere also garnered the highest viewership for any episode in its time slot in four years, since the airing of the "Invasion!" episode of the show "Legends of Tomorrow". It also attracted the largest Live+7-day viewership for a new series since 2016's "Legends of Tomorrow".


title: Logic

text: Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises in a topic-neutral way. When used as a countable noun, the term "a logic" refers to a logical formal system that articulates a proof system. Formal logic contrasts with informal logic, which is associated with informal fallacies, critical thinking, and argumentation theory. While there is no general agreement on how formal and informal logic are to be distinguished, one prominent approach associates their difference with whether the studied arguments are expressed in formal or informal languages. Logic plays a central role in multiple fields, such as philosophy, mathematics, computer science, and linguistics.


title: Logic

text: Logic studies arguments, which consist of a set of premises together with a conclusion. Premises and conclusions are usually understood either as sentences or as propositions and are characterized by their internal structure; complex propositions are made up of simpler propositions linked to each other by propositional connectives like formula_1 (and) or formula_2 (if...then). The truth of a proposition usually depends on the denotations of its constituents. Logically true propositions constitute a special case since their truth depends only on the logical vocabulary used in them and not on the denotations of other terms.


title: Logic

text: Arguments can be either correct or incorrect. An argument is correct if its premises support its conclusion. The strongest form of support is found in deductive arguments: it is impossible for their premises to be true and their conclusion to be false. Deductive arguments contrast with ampliative arguments, which may arrive in their conclusion at new information that is not present in the premises. However, it is possible for all their premises to be true while their conclusion is still false. Many arguments found in everyday discourse and the sciences are ampliative arguments, sometimes divided into inductive and abductive arguments. Inductive arguments usually take the form of statistical generalizations while abductive arguments are "inferences to the best explanation". Arguments that fall short of the standards of correct reasoning are called fallacies.


title: Logic

text: Systems of logic are theoretical frameworks for assessing the correctness of reasoning and arguments. Logic has been studied since Antiquity; early approaches include Aristotelian logic, Stoic logic, Anviksiki, and the mohists. Modern formal logic has its roots in the work of late 19th-century mathematicians such as Gottlob Frege. While Aristotelian logic focuses on reasoning in the form of syllogisms, in the modern era its traditional dominance was replaced by classical logic, a set of fundamental logical intuitions shared by most logicians. It consists of propositional logic, which only considers the logical relations on the level of propositions, and first-order logic, which also articulates the internal structure of propositions using various linguistic devices, such as predicates and quantifiers. Extended logics accept the basic intuitions behind classical logic and extend it to other fields, such as metaphysics, ethics, and epistemology. Deviant logics, on the other hand, reject certain classical intuitions and provide alternative accounts of the fundamental laws of logic.


title: Logic

text: The word "logic" originates from the Greek word "logos", which has a variety of translations, such as reason, discourse, or language. Logic is traditionally defined as the study of the laws of thought or correct reasoning, and is usually understood in terms of inferences or arguments. Reasoning may be seen as the activity of drawing inferences whose outward expression is given in arguments. An inference or an argument is a set of premises together with a conclusion. Logic is interested in whether arguments are good or inferences are valid, i.e. whether the premises support their conclusions. These general characterizations apply to logic in the widest sense since they are true both for formal and informal logic, but many definitions of logic focus on the more paradigmatic formal logic. In this narrower sense, logic is a formal science that studies how conclusions follow from premises in a topic-neutral way. In this regard, logic is sometimes contrasted with the theory of rationality, which is wider since it covers all forms of good reasoning.


title: Logic

text: As a formal science, logic contrasts with both the natural and social sciences in that it tries to characterize the inferential relations between premises and conclusions based on their structure alone. This means that the actual content of these propositions, i.e. their specific topic, is not important for whether the inference is valid or not. Valid inferences are characterized by the fact that the truth of their premises ensures the truth of their conclusion: it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false. The general logical structures characterizing valid inferences are called rules of inference. In this sense, logic is often defined as the study of valid inference. This contrasts with another prominent characterization of logic as the science of logical truths. A proposition is logically true if its truth depends only on the logical vocabulary used in it. This means that it is true in all possible worlds and under all interpretations of its non-logical terms. These two characterizations of logic are closely related to each other: an inference is valid if the material conditional from its premises to its conclusion is logically true.


title: Logic

text: The term "logic" can also be used in a slightly different sense as a countable noun. In this sense, "a logic" is a logical formal system. Different logics differ from each other concerning the formal languages used to express them and, most importantly, concerning the rules of inference they accept as valid. Starting in the 20th century, many new formal systems have been proposed. There are various disagreements concerning what makes a formal system a logic. For example, it has been suggested that only logically complete systems qualify as logics. For such reasons, some theorists deny that higher-order logics and fuzzy logic are logics in the strict sense.


title: Logic

text: Logic encompasses both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the traditionally dominant field, but applying its insights to actual everyday arguments has prompted modern developments of informal logic, which considers problems that formal logic on its own is unable to address. Both provide criteria for assessing the correctness of arguments and distinguishing them from fallacies. Various suggestions have been made concerning how to draw the distinction between the two but there is no universally accepted answer.


title: Logic

text: The most literal approach sees the terms "formal" and "informal" as applying to the language used to express arguments. On this view, formal logic studies arguments expressed in formal languages while informal logic studies arguments expressed in informal or natural languages. This means that the inference from the formulas and to the conclusion is studied by formal logic. The inference from the English sentences "Al lit a cigarette" and "Bill stormed out of the room" to the sentence "Al lit a cigarette and Bill stormed out of the room", on the other hand, belongs to informal logic. Formal languages are characterized by their precision and simplicity. They normally contain a very limited vocabulary and exact rules on how their symbols can be used to construct sentences, usually referred to as well-formed formulas. This simplicity and exactness of formal logic make it capable of formulating precise rules of inference that determine whether a given argument is valid. This approach brings with it the need to translate natural language arguments into the formal language before their validity can be assessed, a procedure that comes with various problems of its own. Informal logic avoids some of these problems by analyzing natural language arguments in their original form without the need of translation. But it faces problems associated with the ambiguity, vagueness, and context-dependence of natural language expressions. A closely related approach applies the terms "formal" and "informal" not just to the language used, but more generally to the standards, criteria, and procedures of argumentation.


title: Logic

text: Another approach draws the distinction according to the different types of inferences analyzed. This perspective understands formal logic as the study of deductive inferences in contrast to informal logic as the study of non-deductive inferences, like inductive or abductive inferences. The characteristic of deductive inferences is that the truth of their premises ensures the truth of their conclusion. This means that if all the premises are true, it is impossible for the conclusion to be false. For this reason, deductive inferences are in a sense trivial or uninteresting since they do not provide the thinker with any new information not already found in the premises. Non-deductive inferences, on the other hand, are ampliative: they help the thinker learn something above and beyond what is already stated in the premises. They achieve this at the cost of certainty: even if all premises are true, the conclusion of an ampliative argument may still be false.


title: Logic

text: One more approach tries to link the difference between formal and informal logic to the distinction between formal and informal fallacies. This distinction is often drawn in relation to the "form", "content", and "context" of arguments. In the case of formal fallacies, the error is found on the level of the argument's form, whereas for informal fallacies, the content and context of the argument are responsible. Formal logic abstracts away from the argument's content and is only interested in its form, specifically whether it follows a valid rule of inference. In this regard, it is not important for the validity of a formal argument whether its premises are true or false. Informal logic, on the other hand, also takes the content and context of an argument into consideration. A false dilemma, for example, involves an error of content by excluding viable options, as in "you are either with us or against us; you are not with us; therefore, you are against us". For the strawman fallacy, on the other hand, the error is found on the level of context: a weak position is first described and then defeated, even though the opponent does not hold this position. But in another context, against an opponent that actually defends the strawman position, the argument is correct.


title: Logic

text: Other accounts draw the distinction based on investigating general forms of arguments in contrast to particular instances or on the study of logical constants instead of substantive concepts. A further approach focuses on the discussion of logical topics with or without formal devices or on the role of epistemology for the assessment of arguments.


title: Logic

text: "Premises" and "conclusions" are the basic parts of inferences or arguments and therefore play a central role in logic. In the case of a valid inference or a correct argument, the conclusion follows from the premises, or in other words, the premises support the conclusion. For instance, the premises "Mars is red" and "Mars is a planet" support the conclusion "Mars is a red planet". It is generally accepted that premises and conclusions have to be truth-bearers. This means that they have a truth value: they are either true or false. Thus contemporary philosophy generally sees them either as "propositions" or as "sentences". Propositions are the denotations of sentences and are usually understood as abstract objects.


title: Logic

text: Propositional theories of premises and conclusions are often criticized because of the difficulties involved in specifying the identity criteria of abstract objects or because of naturalist considerations. These objections are avoided by seeing premises and conclusions not as propositions but as sentences, i.e. as concrete linguistic objects like the symbols displayed on a page of a book. But this approach comes with new problems of its own: sentences are often context-dependent and ambiguous, meaning an argument's validity would not only depend on its parts but also on its context and on how it is interpreted.


title: Logic

text: In earlier work, premises and conclusions were understood in psychological terms as thoughts or judgments, in an approach known as "psychologism". This position was heavily criticized around the turn of the 20th century.


title: Logic

text: Premises and conclusions have internal structure. As propositions or sentences, they can be either simple or complex. A complex proposition has other propositions as its constituents, which are linked to each other through propositional connectives like "and" or "if...then". Simple propositions, on the other hand, do not have propositional parts. But they can also be conceived as having an internal structure: they are made up of subpropositional parts, like singular terms and predicates. For example, the simple proposition "Mars is red" can be formed by applying the predicate "red" to the singular term "Mars". In contrast, the complex proposition "Mars is red and Venus is white" is made up of two simple propositions connected by the propositional connective "and".


title: Logic

text: Whether a proposition is true depends, at least in part, on its constituents. For complex propositions formed using truth-functional propositional connectives, their truth only depends on the truth values of their parts. But this relation is more complicated in the case of simple propositions and their subpropositional parts. These subpropositional parts have meanings of their own, like referring to objects or classes of objects. Whether the simple proposition they form is true depends on their relation to reality, i.e. what the objects they refer to are like. This topic is studied by theories of reference.


title: Logic

text: In some cases, a simple or a complex proposition is true independently of the substantive meanings of its parts. For example, the complex proposition "if Mars is red, then Mars is red" is true independent of whether its parts, i.e. the simple proposition "Mars is red", are true or false. In such cases, the truth is called a logical truth: a proposition is logically true if its truth depends only on the logical vocabulary used in it. This means that it is true under all interpretations of its non-logical terms. In some modal logics, this notion can be understood equivalently as truth at all possible worlds. Logical truth plays an important role in logic and some theorists even define logic as the study of logical truths.


title: Logic

text: Truth tables can be used to show how logical connectives work or how the truth of complex propositions depends on their parts. They have a column for each input variable. Each row corresponds to one possible combination of the truth values these variables can take. The final columns present the truth values of the corresponding expressions as determined by the input values. For example, the expression uses the logical connective formula_1 (and). It could be used to express a sentence like "yesterday was Sunday and the weather was good". It is only true if both of its input variables, formula_4 ("yesterday was Sunday") and formula_5 ("the weather was good"), are true. In all other cases, the expression as a whole is false. Other important logical connectives are formula_6 (or), formula_2 (if...then), and formula_8 (not). Truth tables can also be defined for more complex expressions that use several propositional connectives. For example, given the conditional proposition formula_9, one can form truth tables of its inverse , and its contraposition .


title: Logic

text: Logic is commonly defined in terms of arguments or inferences as the study of their correctness. An "argument" is a set of premises together with a conclusion. An "inference" is the process of reasoning from these premises to the conclusion. But these terms are often used interchangeably in logic. Arguments are correct or incorrect depending on whether their premises support their conclusion. Premises and conclusions, on the other hand, are true or false depending on whether they are in accord with reality. In formal logic, a sound argument is an argument that is both correct and has only true premises. Sometimes a distinction is made between simple and complex arguments. A complex argument is made up of a chain of simple arguments. These simple arguments constitute a "chain" because the conclusions of the earlier arguments are used as premises in the later arguments. For a complex argument to be successful, each link of the chain has to be successful.


title: Logic

text: Arguments and inferences are either are correct or incorrect. If they are correct then their premises support their conclusion. In the incorrect case, this support is missing. It can take different forms corresponding to the different types of reasoning. The strongest form of support corresponds to deductive reasoning. But even arguments that are not deductively valid may still constitute good arguments because their premises offer non-deductive support to their conclusions. For such cases, the term "ampliative" or "inductive reasoning" is used. Deductive arguments are associated with formal logic in contrast to the relation between ampliative arguments and informal logic.


title: Logic

text: A "deductively valid argument" is one whose premises guarantee the truth of its conclusion. For instance, the argument "Victoria is tall; Victoria has brown hair; therefore Victoria is tall and has brown hair" is deductively valid. For deductive validity, it does not matter whether the premises or the conclusion are actually true. So the argument "trees can speak the English language; therefore trees can speak a language" is valid because, if the premise were true, the conclusion would be true as well.


title: Logic

text: Alfred Tarski holds that deductive arguments have three essential features: (1) they are formal, i.e. they depend only on the form of the premises and the conclusion; (2) they are a priori, i.e. no sense experience is needed to determine whether they obtain; (3) they are modal, i.e. that they hold by logical necessity for the given propositions, independent of any other circumstances.


title: Logic

text: Because of the first feature, the focus on formality, deductive inference is usually identified with rules of inference. Rules of inference specify how the premises and the conclusion have to be structured for the inference to be valid. Arguments that do not follow any rule of inference are deductively invalid. The modus ponens is a prominent rule of inference. It has the form ""p"; if "p", then "q"; therefore "q"". Knowing that it has just rained (formula_4) and that after rain the streets are wet (formula_9), one can use modus ponens to deduce that the streets are wet (formula_5).


title: Logic

text: The third feature can be expressed by stating that deductively valid inferences are truth-preserving: it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false. Because of this feature, it is often asserted that deductive inferences are uninformative since the conclusion cannot arrive at new information not already present in the premises. But this point is not always accepted since it would mean, for example, that most of mathematics is uninformative. A different characterization distinguishes between surface and depth information. On this view, deductive inferences are uninformative on the depth level but can be highly informative on the surface level, as may be the case for various mathematical proofs.


title: Logic

text: Ampliative inferences, on the other hand, are informative even on the depth level. They are more interesting in this sense since the thinker may acquire substantive information from them and thereby learn something genuinely new. But this feature comes with a certain cost: the premises support the conclusion in the sense that they make its truth more likely but they do not ensure its truth. This means that the conclusion of an ampliative argument may be false even though all its premises are true. This characteristic is closely related to "non-monotonicity" and "defeasibility": it may be necessary to retract an earlier conclusion upon receiving new information or in the light of new inferences drawn. Ampliative reasoning is of central importance since many arguments found in everyday discourse and the sciences are ampliative. Ampliative arguments are not automatically incorrect. Instead, they just follow different standards of correctness. An important aspect of most ampliative arguments is that the support they provide for their conclusion comes in degrees. In this sense, the line between correct and incorrect arguments is blurry in some cases, as when the premises offer weak but non-negligible support. This contrasts with deductive arguments, which are either valid or invalid with nothing in-between.


title: Logic

text: The terminology used to categorize ampliative arguments is inconsistent. Some authors use the term "induction" to cover all forms of non-deductive arguments. But in a more narrow sense, "induction" is only one type of ampliative argument besides "abductive arguments". Some authors also allow "conductive arguments" as one more type. In this narrow sense, induction is often defined as a form of statistical generalization. In this case, the premises of an inductive argument are many individual observations that all show a certain pattern. The conclusion then is a general law that this pattern always obtains. In this sense, one may infer that "all elephants are gray" based on one's past observations of the color of elephants. A closely related form of inductive inference has as its conclusion not a general law but one more specific instance, as when it is inferred that an elephant one has not seen yet is also gray. Some theorists stipulate that inductive inferences rest only on statistical considerations in order to distinguish them from abductive inference.


title: Logic

text: Abductive inference may or may not take statistical observations into consideration. In either case, the premises offer support for the conclusion because the conclusion is the best explanation of why the premises are true. In this sense, abduction is also called the "inference to the best explanation". For example, given the premise that there is a plate with breadcrumbs in the kitchen in the early morning, one may infer the conclusion that one's house-mate had a midnight snack and was too tired to clean the table. This conclusion is justified because it is the best explanation of the current state of the kitchen. For abduction, it is not sufficient that the conclusion explains the premises. For example, the conclusion that a burglar broke into the house last night, got hungry on the job, and had a midnight snack, would also explain the state of the kitchen. But this conclusion is not justified because it is not the best or most likely explanation.


title: Logic

text: Not all arguments live up to the standards of correct reasoning. When they do not, they are usually referred to as fallacies. Their central aspect is not that their conclusion is false but that there is some flaw with the reasoning leading to this conclusion. So the argument "it is sunny today; therefore spiders have eight legs" is fallacious even though the conclusion is true. Some theorists give a more restrictive definition of fallacies by additionally requiring that they appear to be correct. This way, genuine fallacies can be distinguished from mere mistakes of reasoning due to carelessness. This explains why people tend to commit fallacies: because they have an alluring element that seduces people into committing and accepting them. However, this reference to appearances is controversial because it belongs to the field of psychology, not logic, and because appearances may be different for different people.


title: Logic

text: Fallacies are usually divided into formal and informal fallacies. For formal fallacies, the source of the error is found in the "form" of the argument. For example, denying the antecedent is one type of formal fallacy, as in "if Othello is a bachelor, then he is male; Othello is not a bachelor; therefore Othello is not male". But most fallacies fall into the category of informal fallacies, of which a great variety is discussed in the academic literature. The source of their error is usually found in the "content" or the "context" of the argument. Informal fallacies are sometimes categorized as fallacies of ambiguity, fallacies of presumption, or fallacies of relevance. For fallacies of ambiguity, the ambiguity and vagueness of natural language are responsible for their flaw, as in "feathers are light; what is light cannot be dark; therefore feathers cannot be dark". Fallacies of presumption have a wrong or unjustified premise but may be valid otherwise. In the case of fallacies of relevance, the premises do not support the conclusion because they are not relevant to it.


title: Logic

text: The main focus of most logicians is to investigate the criteria according to which an argument is correct or incorrect. A fallacy is committed if these criteria are violated. In the case of formal logic, they are known as "rules of inference". They constitute definitory rules, which determine whether a certain inference is correct or which inferences are allowed. Definitory rules contrast with strategic rules. Strategic rules specify which inferential moves are necessary in order to reach a given conclusion based on a certain set of premises. This distinction does not just apply to logic but also to various games as well. In chess, for example, the definitory rules dictate that bishops may only move diagonally while the strategic rules describe how the allowed moves may be used to win a game, for example, by controlling the center and by defending one's king. A third type of rules concerns empirical descriptive rules. They belong to the field of psychology and generalize how people actually draw inferences. It has been argued that logicians should give more emphasis to strategic rules since they are highly relevant for effective reasoning.


title: Logic

text: A formal system of logic consists of a language, a proof system, and a semantics. The term "a logic" is often used a countable noun to refer to a particular formal system of logic. Starting in the 20th century, many new formal systems have been proposed.


title: Logic

text: A "formal language" consists of an "alphabet" and syntactic rules. The alphabet is the set of basic symbols used in expressions. The syntactic rules determine how these symbols may be arranged to result in well-formed formulas. For instance, the syntactic rules of propositional logic determine that is a well-formed formula but is not.