The Power Of Logic

"I know what you're thinking about", said Tweedledum: "but it isn't so, nohow."

"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be: but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."

Tweedledee shows off aptly his skills in reasoning in Lewis Carroll's materpiece. And that's all that logic is- reasoning. Figuring out what is right based on what we know.

There are essentially 2 ways one can do this. We can make inferences ('bits of reasoning') that are Deductively Valid from a given set of premises, or we can make Inductively Valid inferences. Let us deal with these two types in turn.

Inferences are deductively valid when the premises to the argument (the 'claims') couldn't be true without the conclusion (the final claim) being true, e.g.

1. All men are mortal; (premise 1)
   
2. Socrates is a man; (premise 2)
   
3. Therefore, Socrates is a mortal. (conclusion)

Inferences are inductively valid when the premise(s) give good reason to believe the conclusion, but it is not wholly conclusive. There is strong induction, as in:

1. All observed crows are black;
2. Therefore all crows are black.

...and there is weak induction, as in:

1. I always hang pictures up with nails.
2. Everyone hangs pictures up with nails.

Inductive logic seems to be primary to everyday life's problems, e.g. why the car won't start, whereas Deductive logic is the primary concern of philosophers due its 'more concrete' nature.

However, we all inherently use Inductive Logic with things in life that perhaps we shouldn't. For example, to say that the sun has risen everyday since the earth's conception (or something along those lines) is probably true. But, this does NOT validate the claim that the sun will rise tomorrow. The lesson here is that one shouldn't take everything for granted. However, this train of thought could spiral into madness as people predict the sun's destruction tomorrow. The real lesson should be: live your life, and do not take it for granted! Be true unto yourself.

That started to get pretty deep, and considering it's only my second post, I think I'll leave it there.


cogito, ergo blog