[lbo-talk] No Evidence ...

[Shane Taylor]

Brian Siano wrote:
> It may be helpful to recognize that formal logic is just
> that: a formalization of reason. Humans have always
> reasoned, even in hunter-gatherer societies (say,
> figuring out what part of the savannah might have
> some decent veggies, what the ibex might run if the
> tribe attacks from downwind, etc.). We may do it
> imperfectly, and imperfect reasoning may actually
> serve us sufficiently in many respects. But that's
> no reason to dismiss logic as something appropriate
> only for specific environments.

Yes, exactly!  Here's what I'd just written when the above hit my inbox:

Logic is, at base, the study of reasoning.  Survival of nearly any
society requires some level of reasoning, however minimal.  The point of
studying logic, I should hope, is to refine our ability to reason.  Most
people can, at least occasionally, smell the bullshit in a fallacy even
as they gloss over the fallacies in their own thought.  The best
expression of this is (supposedly) inscribed on the monument to Freud in
Vienna: the voice of reason is faint, but persistent.

-- Shane

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