What Is Logic?

[agchristie]

A simple question, or is it? Do you believe that the world we live in is becoming more illogical? Do outside influences such as the media influence and deepen our intolerance to such an extent that sound reasoning is being undermined?

A very deep question I know but I am interested to know your thoughts!

[Old_Geezer]

Folk have always held beliefs that could not be logically justified so from that point of view I am unconvinced the world is more illogical. Maybe one is simply more aware of things in these data of global communication.

Of course reality and the world itself doesn't rely on being more or less logical anyway, so what humans believe isn't going to change that.

I think that the media, by selecting what information is made available, can have a large influence on the opinions we form. But deepening intolerance and undermining reasoning ? I think one would need examples. Different individuals have different levels of ability to reason, I don;t thin that changes much; it is the data they have available to reason with that is manipulated.

As for what logic is. It is reasoning performed by validating one step from what follows before, isn't it ?

[Old_Geezer]

...don't think...
>:-(

[agchristie]

OG, thanks for that. I shall give a few areas where sound thinking is very contentious:

Religion (Islam in particular), Immigration, Europe.

If our government and other world leaders can't provide logical reasoning who can we really look to and trust?

[jomifl]

Ag, you can have logical thinking in religion, the problems come when the logic is based on a false premise, such as the existence of god.

[agchristie]

Jomifl - yes, true. Though there are occasions where people are panned for illogical reasoning simply because it can be unproven. For example, look at the space discovery reported yesterday. Years ago, I can imagine Einstein was asked what planet he was on!

[agchristie]

^ sorry, can't be proven

[ichkeria]

Are you asking what logic is or something else?

Saying that the world might be becoming more 'illogical' doesn't sound too ahem logical to me

Not sure if it's relevant, but I'm pretty sure that the increase in the facility to communicate with each other is far from directly proportionate to an increase in logical sensible or honest debate about anything
Everyone has their own agenda and we are all busy pushing it
And yet fascinatingly we still regards the 'media' as something 'other'
We're all the 'media' these days which is not necessarily a good thing
Of course in some parts of the world they don't know about Twitter :-)

[mikey4444]

agchristie....As hundreds of millions of people still hang on to their religions,
I would have thought the world was still highly illogical !

[naomi24]

In recent years the penchant for abandoning often uncomfortable logic in favour of support for certain agendas, or for certain individuals or groups – and in the process the demonization of certain agendas, or of certain individuals or groups – is in greater evidence. With the current demand for stringent political correctness, society is becoming more disingenuous. People lie, surreptitiously, to themselves - and to everyone else too – and that, it appears, has not only become acceptable, it is expected and it is applauded. Farewell logic. Funny old world.

[agchristie]

Naomi, funny old world indeed. Well said.

[sevenOP]

Unless you believe the 'world' is an entity in itself, only those capable of thinking can become less or more logical.
Logic and critical thinking are not equivalent. But both depend on principles of validity(truthful facts) to be effective methods(as well as of course application).

[mibn2cweus]

The power of logic (the art of non-contradiction) lies in its ability to spark the imagination. The moment one refuses to consider the possibility that they might not be right about anything, they've laid the first stumbling block on their path in a quest for discovery of the importance of all that matters, being able through reason to distinguish right from wrong.

One of the most insidious stumbling blocks to rational thinking I've come across is a belief in the infallibility of consciousness, that our perceptions of reality are not clouded by the means and process of perception, that reality must conform to our world view and not the other way around.

As jomifl pointed out, logic cannot proceed beyond the premises one refuses to question. I don't imagine anyone was more shocked by his discoveries than was Einstein.