Why Take Logic?

One of the most annoying problems I encounter is the inability to communicate. It’s not a problem I encounter once in a while, but practically every day. Sometimes I’m the one who’s struggling with my words; sometimes it’s my online teachers, sometimes my friends or parents. And we are all not just groping for words. We’re also trying to think clearly.

What should we do to solve this problem? How can we teach ourselves to think? I have a solution that I find most alluring: traditional logic.

A few years back, I studied Martin Cothran’s Traditional Logic Book I (published by Memoria Press), his intro course on formal logic. I didn’t take the subject very seriously then, and as a result, I was lazy with it. When I finished the book (I wonder if I did even that), I put it away and didn’t think too much about it for a long time, except in a few cases.

But several months ago I attended a talk on the Liberal Arts by Andrew Pudewa. His message on the power of traditional education prompted me to go back and study Logic once again.

I’m very eager to learn Logic. The reason behind all my eagerness is this: I long to think for myself, to pursue the truth on my own steam. I want to think clearly and to see clearly. I’m so tired of the inability to form my own thoughts and communicate them to others. Now that I am taking Logic, a whole new world of communication is opening before me.

But to teach us how to think, what does Traditional Logic teach us? How is it useful to us every day?  I’ll give you a brief overview. To make it interesting, I’ll keep it short. Logic teaches us that:

1.       The mind reasons in three distinct actions: first it grasps concepts, then it affirms or denies certain things about them, and finally it connects judgements together, drawing conclusions.

2.       Two terms can be equated to one another by equating them to a third. For instance, if A is C and B is C, then A is B. Two terms may also be non-equated to one another by means of a third term. If A is C and B is not C, then A is not B.

3.       There are four kinds of propositions in logic. These may oppose each other in four ways, and equal each other in three.

 

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but I hope you get the idea. Now, how will any of these principles help you in the real world? I’ll give you a couple examples.

Firstly, many people believe opposing statements without thinking. Consider the following conversation:

 

Skeptic: There are no absolutes.

Logician: Is that statement absolutely true?

Skeptic: Yes.

Logician: Then you would call it an absolute. So you actually believe in the existence of at least one absolute: namely that there are none.

 

I’ll break this example down to make the Skeptic’s problem more lucid. The skeptic really believes two things:

1.       No absolutes exist.

2.       Some absolutes exist (one absolute, namely that there are none). 

According to Logic, these statements are opposed to each other by contradiction. Contradictory statements cannot both be true or false. Thus one must be true and the other false. When the skeptic claimed that no absolutes exist, he was backing himself into a logical corner, since in order to claim that no absolutes exist he had to create a new absolute. His only option would be to give up the attempt to deny the existence of absolute truths. (I am stating his only logical option. He would probably try a whole multitude of other tactics that have little or no relation to logic.)

Secondly, terms, can be equated to each other by a method called the categorical syllogism. It’s based on a thought process that many people use all the time without even realizing it. The Puritans, for example, believed that all people who floated in water were witches. Based on this belief, they could determine who was a witch, and who wasn’t. Syllogistically, their thought process would look something like this:

All people who float are witches.

This person is a person who floats.

Therefore, this person is a witch.

 

This is a valid syllogism, though one should immediately challenge the truth of the first premise. In any case it demonstrates the importance of the syllogism in the real world. There are lots of other examples I could include that would reinforce my point even further, but I don’t have the time to write them.

I’m really excited about logic. I want to share the good news about it with you; I want you to catch my excitement from me and pass it on to others. This is essential stuff. Everyone needs to know Logic; everyone needs to be able to think with clarity.

And so, in conclusion, I strongly urge you to study Traditional logic (a course that you can buy off memoriapress.com). We are in great need of people who can read, write, think, and speak correctly. Why don’t we reform our culture, starting with ourselves?