what's the point of theories like the following? how have they benefited humans?

Question

do not bother to explain technical details, i've been reading up on them since 3 years back.

law of the excluded middle, false dilemna, syllogism.

how would it seriously benefit human beings to study these theories ? granted, false dilemna makes sense in arguement, so does syllogism. but whats the point of making them so similar, and the most questionable(i think) law, law of the excluded middle. like, huh, you need someone to tell you that?

at least theories like Pythagoras' theorm does benefit us, i really cannot picture someone spending weeks on a thesis explaining that if a = b, and b != c, then a != c.

Answer 1

What you are complaining about is the formality of logic. These are the forms that have been proven to keep a person's thinking on the right track. When you get off track, then there is a label to place upon it to explain why you did. This is needed so you can discuss the error without going into the details of defining it. In other words these terms form the jargon of the logician.

I recommend you read a book by Paul Harvey called Logic and Logical Fallacies. He gives many real world examples where they have crept into decisions. Some of which have had dire consequences.

Answer 2

The Devil's in the details. You can study anything with any amount of depth you want. The human mind is very versatile and can explore questions in minute details. Many humans together can take up a subject and, by debating one another, challenge each other to new theoretical depths.
There is a point at which most people say: Enough. I do not need to know anything more about this. Others remain thoroughly taken up by the debates and continue this exploration. It seems to me that your problem is not truly a philosophical one; it has to do with psychology and your own personal desire to explore, or not to explore certain questions.
If you are actively studying philosophy, you may have stumbled onto a department that is mostly interested in an area that no longer responds to your own questions and inquiries. That is why you may be feeling alienated from the department. Students can then do a number of things: They could attempt to change colleges or universities in the hopes another one will offer it a curriculum more suited to their tastes, they can simply tough it out until they get their diploma, change majors, perhaps try to pick courses more suited to their temperament and interests, etc...
But there is little point in arguing what your particular department is focused upon. All you need to know is some people are willing to explore those questions further than others.

Answer 3

These are issues about reasoning that we have to understand especially IF we are to be educated professionals. Usually we take them for granted all the time and consequently feel they are trivial.

But, they are occasionally violated in our thought processes and usually it is for the wrong reasons. Sometimes, unawareness of these ground rules of logical thought can have extremely pervese consequences on us personally. It is wise to know when these concepts are violated because everything which follows is generally false with bad consequences for you intended.

Answer 4

Theories like this act as the "flow" of the river of "science" and help speed up our voyage to understand the universe. We need people to think abd build a flow of knowledge, even if it is useless.

Answer 5

A variety of reasons actually. Mostly to sustain thinking though. Some of use like thinking, it then becomes a matter of what the individual wants to think about.

Answer 6

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - A patient whose double lung transplant operation was stopped after a plane carrying donor organs crashed into Lake Michigan has received a second set of lungs, doctors announced Friday.

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The 50-year-old Michigan man, whose name wasn't released at his family's request, was in critical condition at a University of Michigan Health System hospital after the more than seven-hour surgery ended early Thursday, the health system said.

"We are relieved that we were able to do this transplant and give this man another chance for life," Dr. Jeffrey Punch, director of the Division of Transplantation at University of Michigan, said in a statement. "Our friends that died in the crash would have wanted us to go on with our work."

The cause of the crash was still unknown, but divers searching the lake off Milwaukee identified a debris field Friday on the lake bottom containing much of the wreckage, said Keith Holloway, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.

Heavy equipment will be needed to raise it, Holloway said. Recovery won't take place until next week, he told the Detroit Free Press.

Police said the Cessna's flight voice recorder had also been recovered, but Holloway could not confirm that.

The patient already was prepped for surgery, with his chest cut open and his lungs exposed to the air in the operating room, when the plane crashed, killing six members of a Survival Flight team.

Officials learned late Tuesday that another set of donor organs was available.

"If he had not received a transplant in a timely fashion he would have died," said Dr. Andrew C. Chang, one of two doctors who led the surgical team.

The patient has not been told of the crash. "I'll tell him more when he can handle it," Chang said.

Chang said the man's condition is "significantly improved."

The patient, a longtime smoker, needed the transplant because of a condition called chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, the health system said. He had been on the waiting list for a double lung transplant since November.

The patient's family, in a statement released by the health system, said it was devastated and heartbroken for the families of the six team members who died in the crash.

A chartered plane transported the new organs from an undisclosed donor hospital to Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, where a transplant donation specialist met the plane and carried the organs to the hospital on a Survival Flight helicopter.

"It is magnificent that this team has continued the work of our team that we lost," Dr. Robert Kelch, the health system's chief executive, said in an e-mail Friday to the health system's employees.

He noted that members of the transplant team continued to work as they dealt with the loss of their colleagues.

"This wonderful news doesn't in any way relieve the acute pain we are feeling at the loss of our dedicated Survival Flight crew," he said.

Killed in Monday's crash were cardiac surgeon Dr. Martinus Spoor, transplant donation specialist Richard Chenault II, Dr. David Ashburn, a physician-in-training in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, transplant donation specialist Richard LaPensee and pilots Dennis Hoyes and Bill Serra.