LESSON 3: LOGIC
Basic Questions: What are Fallacies?
What are egocentric tendencies that affect our thinking?
What is correct thinking and reasoning?
What is Logic?
Logic, from Classical Greek λόγος (logos), originally meaning the word, or what is spoken, (but coming to mean thought or reason) is most often said to be the study of criteria for the evaluation of arguments, although the exact definition of logic is a matter of controversy among philosophers. However the subject is grounded, the task of the logician is the same: to advance an account of valid and fallacious inference to allow one to distinguish logical from flawed arguments.
Traditionally, logic is studied as a branch of philosophy. Since the mid-nineteenth century logic has been commonly studied in mathematics and law. More recently logic is applied in computer science and artificial intelligence. As a formal science, logic investigates and classifies the structure of statements and arguments, both through the study of formal systems of inference and through the study of arguments in natural language. The scope of logic can therefore be very large, ranging from core topics such as the study of fallacies and paradoxes, to specialist analyses of reasoning such as probably correct reasoning and arguments involving causality. Logic is also commonly used today in argumentation theory.
Logic is also the study of necessary truths and of systematic methods for clearly expressing and rigorously demonstrating such truths.
· Logic is the Science and the Art of correct thinking
· Logic is the study of inferential thinking and methods and processes to arrive at principles for distinguishing correct from incorrect arguments.
· Logic is the study of relationships of ideas and judgments that results into a discovery of new ideas and judgments
· Logic is the study of the mental operation by which the mind discovers new truths from the relationships of known truths.
· Logic is the study of right reasoning and good thinking. It is an important tool in critical, strategic and creative thinking.
· Logic is a potent tool of philosophy and other arts and sciences
The Process of Knowing
Logic is the art of correct thinking and right reasoning. To be able to understand the thinking process and develop right reasoning, a nurse must first understand the three mental operations by which the mind knows. The reason is simple. One can only think and reason out correctly of something that one knows.
There are two elements in the process of knowing: 1) There must be a reality to be known or an object of knowledge and 2) there must be the ability to know or the intellect. Everyday a human being experiences the external world of material reality for, as one philosopher puts it, “man is a being in the world.” But man experiences this world in a particular manner and thus knows particular knowledge. How then can he form universal knowledge of this world?
It is fortunate for us humans to be a material-spiritual being, a body-soul, an embodied spirit, and/or a rational animal. The senses, which are material faculties and the intellect which is a spiritual faculty work together to form concepts out of the material realities that human beings experience enabling us to understand, think and act on such realities.
Human beings form universal ideas of this material world through the abstraction process by the intellect of the data supplied by the material senses.(see ideogenesis below)
The Three Mental Operations
The first mental operation is Simple Apprehension or the awareness of the presence and the perception of reality. This leads to the formation of ideas that are communicated through terms.
Table of the Three Mental Operations
| Product | Mental Operation | External Manifestation |
| Concepts/Ideas | 1. Simple Apprehension | Terms |
| Mental Statements | 2. Judgment | Propositions |
| Arguments | 3. Reasoning | Syllogisms |
The second mental operation is Judgment or the recognition of the relationship or non-relationship that exist between ideas, terms, or realities. Judgment results into a mental statement that is expressed through a proposition.
The third mental operation is Reasoning or the discovery of a new judgment called conclusion from the relationship of two judgments that are called premises.
The three mental operations do not only result into the understanding of ideas but into the understanding of the interrelations, interconnectedness and interdependence of these ideas thus discovering implied truths and pushing the boundaries of human knowledge.
1. Simple Apprehension: The First Mental Operation
· Simple apprehension is the process of grasping or abstracting the essence of a thing without affirming or denying anything about it.
· It involves the awareness of the presence of certain reality which is the object of human knowledge
· It is the understanding of what a reality is or is about
· It is what a person perceived to be what a thing confronting him is
· It results into an idea or concept-the abstracted nature of the reality that was experienced. This idea or concept is verbally manifested through terms- the stuff we use to communicate and share our ideas, feelings and emotions
1.a. The Role of the Senses in Simple Apprehension
In the process called Ideogenesis, the creation of Ideas, we recognize the importance of the senses in the process of knowing.
The Process of Ideogenesis (How do we know reality?)
We know reality through the five senses. The sense data is perceived by the external senses and is passed to a common sense as a percept. A percept is a sort of a mirror copy of the actual reality. Then the percept is passed to the estimative sense where it is retained in the memory and imaginative sense.
The product of the estimative sense is the phantasm. The phantasm is abstracted by the active intellect to get the universal quiddity or essence. After the phantasm has been cleansed of its material
elements and particularity it is presented to the passive intellect in the form of an idea or concept. That is how a human being is able to understand the reality that surrounds him.
FALLACY: A SEEMINGLY SOUND ARGUMENT
Fallacy refers to errors in the reasoning process or an argument that has insufficient evidence for its conclusion or simply the lack of sequence in the inferential thinking. Fallacies often involve the use of genuine truths that are distorted to serve the interest of the one employing them. We often encounter them in propaganda, sales talk, advertisements, and emotional speeches and in ordinary day today conversation with other people.
Since logic is concerned with right reasoning, it will be helpful for us to study fallacies in order to avoid committing them and becoming its victims
Kinds of Informal or Material Fallacy
1. The Fallacy of Relevance- an erroneous reasoning process that presents unrelated or irrelevant facts or psychological factors, which in turn befog the mind and deviate it from the real issue.
Example: The bishop is innocent from the charges of sexual harassment because many people attended the prayer rally for him. He is also known to be kind and he helped a lot of people.
2. The fallacy of Ambiguity-An erroneous reasoning process, which is a result of the lack of preciseness in the meaning of the language that was used.
Example: He did not violate the law since he parked his car only on one side, what was
prohibited was parking on both sides.
The types of Fallacy of Relevance
1. Argumentum ad Baculum or the Appeal to force- this uses moral, psychological, cultural or physical pressure instead of reason in its argument. Appealing to force is wrong because it attacks the freedom of man.
2. Argumentum ad misericordiam or the appeal to pity- when compassion or pity is being used of obscure the issue.
3. Argumentum ad authoritatem or the appeal to misplaced authority-when the truth of the argument is solely based on an authority not relevant to the issue.
4. Argumentum ad hominem-when then personality of the opponent is attacked when it has nothing to do with the issue.
5. Argumentum ad ignorantiam or the appeal to ignorance- when the truth or falsity of an issue is asserted because no one can offer proof of its contradictory.
6. Argumentum ad populum or the appeal to people-When the popular sentiments of the majority or those that counts are made the basis of the conclusion. This makes use of the bandwagon argument.
7. Petitio Pricipii or Begging the question-when one makes use of an unproven assumption to prove yet another assumption.
7b. Circulus in probando or arguing in circles- the use of an unproven assumption to prove another assumption that proves the first assumption.
8. Ignoratio elennchi or ignoring the issue- when the issue is set aside and an unrelated fact is presented or an irrelevant conclusion is made.
9. Fallacy of false cause-when an effect is attributed to an unrelated cause simply because the perceived effect took place after the perceived cause.
10. Hasty Generalization-When the argument concludes even if there is insufficient data to establish a valid sequence when what is true to a few is made true to all.
11. Special pleading-when the argument uses only favorable truths and disregards other truth that will not serve the purpose of the one arguing. When partial truths are presented as the whole truth.
12. Black or white or the fallacy of broad disjunction- when a contrary relation is presented as contradictory.
13. Fallacy of accident- when accidental qualities of a thing is assumed to be essential. When physical properties are mistaken to be the true nature of a being.
14. A fortiori Fallacy- when other properties/possibilities are not considered in arriving at a conclusion. The argument is based solely on one aspect of reality ignoring other aspects that greatly affect that reality.
15. Appeal to money or advantage- when truth is based on what material reward or advantage it can provide.
2. FALLACY OF AMBIGUITY
1. Fallacy of Equivocation- when the meaning of a term is interpreted into two distinct meanings. When one of the terms in the syllogism is equivocal or analogous.
2. Fallacy of Amphiboly- When a phrase or a proposition is used in two or more interpretations
3. Fallacy of Accent or prosody- when the context of a statement is falsely interpreted. When a statement is entirely taken out of context and the suppositions are wrong.
4. Fallacy of Composition-When what should be understood to be the properties of an individual is taken collectively. When an individual characteristic is applied to all the members of the group.
5. Fallacy of division-When the collective property is applied to an individual. When what is true to a whole as a whole is made true to an individual part.
6. Fallacy of false analogy-when similarity of meanings is inferred from the similarity of patterns.
Egocentric Tendencies That Affect Sound Reasoning
Aside from these fallacies, the human mind is naturally prone to the following egocentric tendencies of which a person must likewise guard against:
1. Egocentric Memory. It is the natural tendency to “forget” evidences and information which do not support our thinking and to “remember” evidences and information which do
2. Egocentric myopia. This is the natural tendency to think absolutely within an overly narrow point of view
3. Egocentric infallibility. This is the natural tendency to think that our beliefs are true because we believe them
4. Egocentric Righteousness. It is the natural tendency to feel superior in the light of our confidence that we are in the possession of the TRUTH
5. Egocentric Hypocrisy. It is the natural tendency to ignore flagrant inconsistencies between what we profess to believe and the actual beliefs our behavior imply, or inconsistencies between the standards to which we hold ourselves and those to which we expect others to adhere
6. Egocentric oversimplification. This is the natural tendency to ignore real and important complexities in the world in favor of simplistic notions when consideration of those complexities would require us to modify our beliefs or values)
7. Egocentric Blindness. This is the natural tendency not to notice facts or evidence which contradict our favored beliefs or values
8. Egocentric immediacy. It is the natural tendency to over-generalize immediate feelings and experience- so that when one event in our life is highly favorable or unfavorable, all of life seems favorable or unfavorable as well)
9. Egocentric absurdity. It is the natural tendency to fail to notice thinking which has” absurd” consequences, when noticing them would force us to rethink our position
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