The Scope and Limits of Logic, Essay Example

Logic is about reasoning – about going from premises to a conclusion. Studying logic is like playing a game or doing puzzles; logic changes our thinking processes in new ways. The rigor of logical system fascinates us. And logic deepens our understanding of philosophy. Logic analyzes the canons of thought, and thus lets us into its mechanism and familiarizes us with its processes. The study of logic, therefore, tends to improve our reasoning powers, but only as other studies and mental exercises do, by promoting the perceptions and habits which are essentials to reasoning.

Now consider a debate whether prayers should be allowed in public schools. Much of the current debateover prayerin public schoolsinvolves gray-area situations about where the lines should be drawn (Delaney, & Madigan, 2009, p. 268). In a position of semi-symbolic power, prayers groups seek to protect the gains they have made from the tragedies at schools in the last two years. They need the ‘permissive’ culture that nourishes them in order to maintain a stranglehold on school policy concerning the First Amendment (p. 268). Each and every time the Left capitulates this logic of violent culture, it gives the radical right wing another inch from the already open door that leads down the road to a reanimation of narrow-mindedness. This movement is already reclaiming the political community by using the subjective destitution felt by students.

When an argument functions, and we know that the conclusion holds true on the strength of the premises, we have sound and valid reasoning. Valid reasoning involves the way in which one sentence leads to another, regardless of whether the individual sentences hold true or not in the ‘real world’. For example, we can construct logically valid argument to the effect that if you are a sparrow, and then you can fly (even though neither condition represents reality)! Logic provides us with mathematical certainty about a specific chain of reasoning. Pure logic, however, has nothing to do with the correctness or reality of any assumptions we make.

References

Delaney, Tim, & Madigan, Tim. (2009). The Sociology in Sports: An Introduction. McFarland, pp. 268-270.