How can logic help in the atttainment of truth?

Question

Logic,a branch of philosophy. How can it help in the attainment of truth?

Answer 1

There are two main themes in your question with a connective between them. Truth, logic, and how logic helps to realise truth.

What is truth? We must be clear about what we mean by truth. Do we know what truth is? If truth comes by our way, will we recognise it? It's important to realise what it is we are looking for, otherwise we shall never know we have found it.

You might say it is true that I am reading this answer on my PC screen. You may end your quest there. Or you might go a stage further and say I see some pattern on the screen which I recognise somehow to mean something, something which I think I recognise and understand. One more step will lead you to electrons impinging on a screen which results in their energy conversion to light, on certain parts of the screen to form this recognisable pattern. Deeper still, these electrons were emitted by a filament at the other end of the tube, etc. etc. etc.

But are we sure they are electrons? How do we know that? Have we seen an electron? We only attribute certain observations to electrons, which in reality no one has seen. So we presume that there is something called electron which, IF TRUE, will, under certain circumstances such as exist in the PC monitor tube, generate the picture we perceive on the screen. So far the set of properties we attribute to electrons seem to serve very well in explaining our observation. But if tomorrow, we make an observation which forces us to question our hitherto held belief about electrons then we either say that it isn't electrons which is the root cause but something else, and we start our quest again. On the other hand we might wish to modify our ideas about the electron's properties to fit the new observation, TAKING CARE THAT OTHER OBSERVATIONS ARE STILL EXPLAINABLE in terms of electrons, albeit with their modified properties.

This is how logic comes into the picture. We move in increments, sometimes closer to WHAT WE PERCEIVE as the "truth", and sometimes away from it. We keep modifying our view of the world all the time to see how our modified perceptions match our observations. And that's the way we progress. Sometimes there is a sudden flash of insight such as happened in the early 20th century leading to quantum mechanics. Then a few decades later that same flash of insight is re-examined and questioned. The foundation of quantum mechanics is Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. Today that very principle is being questioned: Is the universe really uncertain at bottom, or was Einstein correct in his assertion that God does not play dice?

It's by repeated questioning and examining, assimilating and discarding various theories (which are essentially perceptions of what or how things might be) that we improve our understanding of our uiniverse, and, through it, of ourselves.

Answer 2

I believe logic is irrelevant. The reason why I say this is because truth is not ultimate nor attainable. There is not a universal truth that everyone must strive for and attain, but truth only exists in the eye of the beholder. The truth human beings strive for is based on personal perception although sometimes it may seem like truth is based on the reasoning of the masses.

If logic could help then human beings would all have to think the same way and therefore we would not have our own intrinsic personalities.

Truth is based your own perception of Truth; no one Else's!

Answer 3

Logic helps weed out the nonsense. Of course, that only helps if the truth is ultimately logical. It's entirely possible that the universe itself is NOT logical, that what we think of as the universe is only that small part of the real thing that can be known in logical ways. Intuition and ESP may one day be commonly accepted modes of knowing. And again, what counts as logical today at one time wasn't. Zeno believed if you add up an infinite number of positive quantities, the sum had to be infinite. Today any Algebra 2 student can sum up a convergent geometric series with a simple formula. The thing is to be open to possibility with a seasoning of skepticism.

Answer 4

There is not a whole lot of truth on answers because not much logic is used

Answer 5

if you're good st logics, you might be able to see how to figure out things, then connect it all to find out the truth...you might start thinking why some things happend....and if you're good at logics, you might be an understanding person because you see what really is happening.

Answer 6

To me logic is ephemeral

Answer 7

As long as your not on crack.

Answer 8

Spock, is this you?