Tag: logic

Logic (Wikipedia): the study of correct reasoning
Reason (Wikipedia): the capacity of consciously applying logic

Logic (Britannica): the study of correct reasoning, especially as it involves drawing inferences
Reason (Britannica): the faculty or process of drawing logical inferences

Great! Full circle in just two arcs!

But for us humans it could not be otherwise. The life-force drives us to stay alive. To stay alive, we must eat. To eat we must successfully interact with physical reality. Physical reality appears to have eternal, invariant properties and processes. In the micro-cosmos of our individual minds we can represent these invariants as logic, i.e., reliable rules for relating things so that we can successfully predict the future: the next instant, tomorrow, next month, etc. [1]

Logic and reason are sufficient to keep us alive, but not to evolve. In our minds we need to be able to spontaneously create entities that may, or may not, adhere to our current rules for reasoning. We need imagination.

Imagination (Wikipedia): the production or simulation of novel objects, sensations, and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses

Imagination (Britannica): the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality

Combining logic and imagination we can create social realities that are antithetical to physical reality. Applying logic in such realities can have disastrous results, e.g., Jamestown, 1978; the German Reich, early 1940s.

We presently have only one way to avoid such disasters. We can continuously check our logical/rational deductions against what we can surmise to be the case in objective reality. [3] This is not easy. After centuries of effort we do a fair job of matching logical/rational conclusions to physical reality. But our continuing failure to align our behavior to be in line with the imperatives of social reality is likely to result in our total demise.

Notes
[1] We also use logic to play games with propositions about imaginary entities, for example, affine geometry. [2]

[2] Exner, R.M. and Rosskopf, M. F. Logic in Elementary Mathematics, McGraw-Hill, 1959

[3] See Rational Versus Logical Argument (pending)