What is the root and goal, if there is any, of logical thinking?

Question

Is the purpose of logic to arrive at goals commonly defined as being in best human interest?

Is it about the consistency of moral principles, whatever the probable consequence might be?

Or is there no motivation to logic in anyway other than to be logical, establishing as best as possible the most probable or certain outcomes, root causes and options?

Interesting replies. Well, time to put these answers to a vote.

Answer 1

I think people confuse Science and Philosophy

Logic is a way of thinking that hopefully produces the truth. Not the truth in a religous or moral sense, but the truth in scientific, hard facts kind of way. You cannot apply logic to items of faith or morality, because these items are subjective.

The root goal of logic is to find the truth. If you use medicine, thank logic. The invention of your car or bike, logic. Christianity or Islam, not logic, but not in a derrogatory sense. I just mean that those things exist outside what logical thinking can resolve.

Answer 2

The goal of logic is clarity of thought, eliminating emotion and bias, thus leading to truth that any other clear thinker can accept as truth.

Logic has nothing to do directly with moral principles, since logic can be used for immoral purposes as easily as moral ones. Ethics deals with morality.

As "Star Trek" repeatedly showed, logic is not enough for human beings. We need to recognize our emotions and satisfy our human needs that are not logical.

Answer 3

Logic teaches the rigors of thinking, so the goal of logical thinking is to arrive at a sound and valid answer. A good logical syllogism is always truth preserving, so logical thinking helps one to arrive at the truth. Unless of course, you are a relativist, then it is a waste of time. At the same time one can also detect falsehoods, because they are not truth preserving.

Answer 4

Logic is the sequential process of analytical thought arriving at a conclusion that is grounded in fact and a predictable outcome or "expectation" of outcome arrived at via the same process.

Answer 5

correct reasoning