if it's logic, does that mean that it is true??

Answer 1

Logic is merely an art of words (logos). It can only confirm what you already know to be true. But there is no logical way to move beyond known truths into the unknown.

Answer 2

The best way to formulate that question so as to avoid ambiguity is: Does a logical argument always lead to a true conclusion?

The answer is that it depends on what you mean by logical. something could be logical in the sense of its being valid and lead to a false conclusion. Example:
1) Socrates is a man
2) All men can fly
3) Therefore, Socrates can fly

That's a valid argument in the sense that IF the premises (1 and 2) are true then the conclusion HAS to be true. so the logic there is perfect. but because the second premise is false the conclusion is false. so a valid argument can lead to something that is not true

But, there's a more strict definition of 'logical' sometimes. Sometimes when people say logical they mean that an argument is SOUND. a sound argument is just like a valid argument, except it has the added criteria that all the premises actually be true and the conclusion actually be true.
Example:
1) Socrates is a man
2) all men are mortal
3) therefore, Socrates is mortal

Here the conclusion is true. This is because not only can we say if the premises were true then the conclusion has to be true (that is, not only is this a VALID argument) but we can also say that in fact the premises are true. Therefore, the conclusion HAS to be true.

So in short, if something is logical in the sense of valid then it need not lead to anything true, but if something is logical in the much more strict sense of being sound then it has to (by definition) lead to something true.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

Not necessarily. Logic does not take any interest (per se) in the outside world. There are several cases in which a consistent, logical statement will lead to false conclusions. There are many different fallacies, but these can be summed up to cases where premises are false.

Here's an example to help you sort out the difference between a logical fallacy and good logic leading to false conclusions on account of false premises.

1) All humans are mortals (T)
2) My cat is not human (T)
3) Therefore, my cat is immortal (F).

The problem with the above is that I draw a false conclusion from the fact that all humans are mortals. Just because all humans are mortal, it does not follow that all non-humans are not mortals. So my logic is faulty.

But in this case:

1) My cat is either blue or green (F)
2) My cat is not green (T)
3) Therefore, my cat is blue (F)

The problem is not with the logic. There's nothing wrong with the logic itself. I simply introduced a premise that was false to begin with.

Answer 4

uhh... that dude that wrote the first answer doesn't know what he's talking about. His answer makes no sense and has nothing to do with logic.

Logic is simply making-sense. If something makes sense, then it is logical.

In answer to your question, NO, being logical does not make something true. There are two concepts related to logic: A "Valid" argument and a "Sound" argument. A valid argument is one inwhich the conclusion makes sense based on the information given. For example, if I say "All birds have feathers. George Bush is a bird. Therefore, George Bush has feathers." That argument is valid because it makes sense. But its not true because George Bush is not a bird, so even though the conclusion follows from the information, the information was inaccurate. A sound argument is a valid argument inwhich the statements leading to the conclusion are accurate. For example, if I said "All US Presidents so far have been men. George Bush is a US President. Therefore, George is a man." Thats a sound argument that is true.

To sum it up, being logical doesn't make things true. But if all of your supporting info is true and you're not missing something, the logical conclusion derived from that information should be true.

Answer 5

To elaborate with a non-mathematical example. Logic is pure "GIGO"--garbage in, garbage out. Something can be 100% logical and totally false, if the premises are false.

Begin as follows:

All men are blue.
Bob is not blue.
Therefore, Bob cannot be a man.

Bob actually is a man, so the logic of the progression leads to a false result, because it starts with a false premise.

Logic cannot be used to determine truth, it can only be used to determine if conclusions follow from the premises given. If the premises given are false, the conclusions should also be false.

Added on edit: Darn, someone else posted nearly the same answer just as I was composing this one.

Answer 6

Nope. In logic, a statement has two "truth functions": true, and false.

An argument is a set of statements where the premises support the conclusion.

A VALID argument is an argument where if the premises are true, the conclusion must be true.

A SOUND argument is a valid argument that is true.

Some examples:

An valid with false premises:

"All birds have beaks. Some cats are birds. So, some cats have beaks."

The fact that some cats are birds is, of course, not true. However, if it were true, it would support the conclusion.

The argument, however, is not "SOUND". A sound argument is as follows:

All birds have beaks. A bluejay is a type of birds. So, all bluejays have beaks.

Answer 7

Logic is only a means of finding-out if reasoning is true or false and right or wrong but it does not mean that it is true nor false, etc. but ony in your reasoning.
Since there are standards for reasoning as well as logic, it should pass certain criterias to determine its validity categorically and hypothetically.

Answer 8

Nope. Logic is only as good as the facts that it is based on.

For instance, you may be told that it is 95 miles between Cheyenne and Denver and you can logically work out the travel time. Unfortunately, it is 99 miles between those two cities so your logic would be flawed.

Answer 9

logic is the search for truth

it is a branch of philosophy concerned with establishing the boundaries of what can be known

Given the original statements, you can derive other true statements from them, however if the original statements are flawed then you may have false answers.

Garbage in, garbage out

But that is not a criticism of logic itself which can help people reason truly.

Answer 10

No, perfect logic only guarantees that the conclusions follow from the premises.

If the premises are wrong, so are the conclusions.