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Re: Logic
Davin L. — (archived)

Tom:
" Reason separated from observation can get someone in as much trouble as observation separated from reason.

Remember, raw logic is how the Greeks "proved" a rabbit could never beat a turtle in a race. "

Regarding reason separated from observation:

Yep... You ever here the one about the logician who invented the perfect mousetrap and called a summit of world leaders to show that he could end pestillence? He got up and drew a circle and began:
"Assume a spherical mouse"

Logic is even more misunderstood as a discipline than Mathematics- even though the two are the same thing in many categories. Sentential/propositional logic is about (mainly) the preservation of truth. Starting from true statements and using valid rules of inference we reach only true statements.

Truth, on the other hand, is a whole different monster all together- and much more elusive. While PROP can preserve the truth of statements and generate true statements from true statements, it can't promise the truth of premises (and from false premises you can arrive at tutles winning against rabbits). It CAN be used to demonstrate the falsity of claims by showing they lead to a contradiction. (and from there it starts getting really cool and computational)

What I am mainly critiquing is what is commonly called "argumentative fallacy" or "logical fallacy" (there is a better name for it, but I forgot it since it is really not in my field), although the second name is a little misleading because it has little to do with the practice of modern logic and more to do with discourse. Argumentative fallacies are ways of misdirecting an argument using 'voodoo' techniques- like personal attacks etc.... They eliminate/ignore Logic in discourse.

Davin

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