Jonathan Chait performs "everyday logic!"

SATURDAY, MAY 22, 2021

Not that it would have helped: Aristotle is generally viewed as the founder of western world logic. 

Given the way our discourse currently works, this behavior would be widely viewed as one elitist's sneering attempt to curtail our personal freedoms. 

Today, one man's logic is another man's buzzkill! At any rate, the leading authority on the topic tells us this:

With the Prior Analytics, Aristotle is credited with the earliest study of formal logic, and his conception of it was the dominant form of Western logic until 19th-century advances in mathematical logic. Kant stated in the Critique of Pure Reason that with Aristotle logic reached its completion.

According to that same authority, "Aristotelian logic" is also known as  term logic,  traditional logic or syllogistic logic. Kant notwithstanding, that 19th-century "mathematical logic" moved off in some different directions:

Mathematical logic, also called formal logic, is a subfield of mathematics exploring the applications of formal logic to mathematics. It bears close connections to metamathematics, the foundations of mathematics, philosophy, and theoretical computer science. The unifying themes in mathematical logic include the study of the expressive power of formal systems and the deductive power of formal proof systems. 

Mathematical logic is often divided into the fields of set theory, model theory, recursion theory, and proof theory. These areas share basic results on logic, particularly first-order logic...

Since its inception, mathematical logic has both contributed to, and has been motivated by, the study of foundations of mathematics. This study began in the late 19th century with the development of axiomatic frameworks for geometry, arithmetic, and analysis. In the early 20th century it was shaped by David Hilbert's program to prove the consistency of foundational theories. Results of Kurt Gödel, Gerhard Gentzen, and others provided partial resolution to the program, and clarified the issues involved in proving consistency. Work in set theory showed that almost all ordinary mathematics can be formalized in terms of sets, although there are some theorems that cannot be proven in common axiom systems for set theory. Contemporary work in the foundations of mathematics often focuses on establishing which parts of mathematics can be formalized in particular formal systems (as in reverse mathematics) rather than trying to find theories in which all of mathematics can be developed.

If you don't understand any of that, neither does anyone else! To a large extent, that's our key point.

At any rate, you can call it term logic or syllogistic logic. After that, you can call it mathematical, formal or philosophical logic. 

One thing you really can't call it is everyday or daily logic. That's the kind of logic Jonathan Chait provides in this post for New York magazine.

According to Chait's essay, if you criticize a bunch of people who are all member of some demographic group, that doesn't mean that you hate, or even are criticizing, everyone else in that group.

You may not be criticizing anyone else in that group! No really—that's what Chait says!

That may seem absurdly clear on its face, but given the way our discourse works, there is no inference so plainly illogical that it won't be widely adopted and loudly advanced by one of our warring tribes. For that reason, Chait undertook the Sisyphean task of stating the blindingly obvious.

You can't really call it Aristotelian logic. You can't really call it mathematical logic. We would call it "daily logic," and over the course of the past forty years, we've noticed the silence of the logicians when the society has needed a dose of this invaluable tonic.

Remember when the pundits argued, night after night, about Newt Gingrich's Medicare proposal? We do!

Would the proposal "cut" Medicare, or would it merely slow the rate at which the program would grow? We needed logicians to straighten that out. Their silence was widely observed.

Remember when creative paraphrase was applied every time Candidate Gore opened his mouth? We do!

We needed someone to come forward to outline the logic of sensible paraphrase. Once again, total silence!

Anthropologists say it wouldn't have done any good if the logicians had intervened in our everyday discourse. In the end, that isn't the problem, they say.

The so-called "silence of the logicians" has been obvious and quite widespread, these despondent scholars all say. But no, it wouldn't have helped in the end if our cosseted logicians had stepped up to  perform daily service.

In the end, that isn't the nature of the problem, disconsolate anthropologists tell us. Then they shamble back into their caves, within which loud moaning is heard. 

Jonathan Chait stepped up to the plate and spelled out some everyday logic. Whatever you may want to call them, our varied logicians just haven't. 

We even watched Greg Gutfeld last night. Good God but that program was bad!


29 comments:

  1. "If you don't understand any of that, neither does anyone else! To a large extent, that's our key point."

    Perhaps you needn't try understanding it, dear Bob.
    There are many things in life to wonder about. Statistics, for example. You like statistics, don't you?

    "No really—that's what Chait says!"

    Oh well. Like the broken clock, even a dembot can be correct, accidentally. But we're reasonably certain that poor Mr Chait will be disciplined for veering off the script.

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  2. Everyday human logic falls into the field of cognitive psychology, including reasoning and decision making. Somerby regularly displays his ignorance of that field, which Chait did not originate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Jonathan Chait stepped up to the plate and spelled out some everyday logic. Whatever you may want to call them, our varied logicians just haven't."

    Neither have plumbers, electricians, accountants, train engineers, short order cooks, or librarians. None of them have stepped up to the plate either. Because that isn't their job. Logicians are not commentators on American politics like Chait is. That isn't what they do. It doesn't make what they do worthless. It just makes it different.

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  4. "Somerby is such an asshole."

    What did you expect?
    He's a Conservative.

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  5. This a pointless attempt to condemn human nature. We've made some progress towards logic and rationalism as a species. Have we reached perfection? No, but the point is to try to move in the right direction.

    The features of political discourse remain unchanged since the ancients. Plato and Socrates were on the side of the anti-democratic faction in Athens--they favored oligarchy. So did Aristotle, though he was in favor of a welfare state. The use of illogic and rhetorical trickery has always existed. Critical thinking skills are the best weapon against this.

    In modern times, the best societies have been the post-WW2 social democracies in Europe and East Asia. Also, in the USA, from the period of the New Deal through the 70s. We should have continued to improve that model. Unfortunately, the forces of plutocracy and irrationality got organized and took over the Republican Party. Their mission has been to destroy all the things that helped improve the lives of working people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Talk about 'white supremacy'."

      The corporate owned Right-wing media (AKA the media) prefer the term 'economic anxiousness'.

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  6. You don’t help your Anonymouse cause by making yourself Exhibit A for his every blog post.

    ReplyDelete
  7. And what do you expect from Cecelia? She's a conservative too.

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  8. When you define a conservative as anyone who has the temerity not to view your fellows as being a Master Cohort, you are designating people from libertarians to independents as being conservatives.

    That’s the sort of militancy and disconnection with reality and that drives you to tell a blogger to shut-up seven days a week rather than just going to a blogspot written by someone you enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mao,
    Can you decipher Cecelia's word salad, and put it in English so we can try to understand what point her babble was trying to make?

    Thanks in advance.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It’s not hard to understand, Anonymouse 8:42am, it’s just not what you want to hear.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Mao,
    How many times are you going to make me ask?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Until you say pretty please, dear.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Cecelia's point that it was the Right, and not the Left, who tried to overthrow the United States just because black people's votes counted in an election, couldn't be more on point.

    ReplyDelete
  14. That sentiment is so on point in your existence that you see it in the pattern on your sheets and hear it while whispering sweet nothings to Alexa.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Alexa, why can't Right-wingers act in good faith?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Speaking of Libertarians, do you think they have any idea that they support open borders?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Alexa: “Why can’t Anonymices do pillow talk?”


    ReplyDelete
  18. Cecelia,
    What's the sort of militancy and disconnection with reality that drives Right-wingers to want to overthrow an election because their hero lost in a landslide?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Libertarians: “Get off my property,”

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous 10:02pm, the same impetus that motivated Al Gore?

    ReplyDelete
  21. Libertarian = Republican voter too ashamed to admit it in public.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The best was when Cecelia got slapped around by hedge funders for pretending she hated businesses being looted. She hasn't made that mistake since.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Cecelia,
    Allow me to "both sides" you, by pointing out the Right calls anyone who believes in reality and can think in full sentences an "elitist".

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymouse 11:50pm, in that case you’re safe from such appellations.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Just because Cecelia isn't as funny as terminal cancer, doesn't mean she's not the funniest Right-winger ever.

    ReplyDelete
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