Logic. What is it, anyway?

[crow]

People drone on about logic, all the time, and about how important it is.
Then they get around to scolding others for their decreed lack of it.
If you are deemed illogical, you can be safely tucked away in a corner, to wear a dunce's hat, and marginalized.

But logic, whatever logic is, is entirely dependent upon the amount of it that one is capable of, a any given moment.
There must be, then, logically, varying degrees of logic.
Which suggests that logic is by no means any kind of valid measure of anything.

Which, in turn, suggests that experience has a lot to do with logic, since only experience can provide context for logic.
The more the experience, the greater the capacity for logic, until, with enough experience, one's grasp of logic can become so advanced that it no longer even resembles logic to those lacking such experience.

Which, in turn, makes a fair argument for not paying too much attention to the infallibility of logic.
Logic thus resembles ego, in that it is a waypoint, between here, and there, that enables one to get by, until something better shows up.

So much for logic.
Does anybody have anything to add?
(Or if you happen to be a Scot: "Doose anniewon hae aye tae add?")

[dead last]

Logic is what we get when we distill our collective experiences into a lowest-common-demoninator form. It is really very handy as a tool, but you know the expression, "when you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

Logic is not overrated, just misapplied. You have to love hearing someone argue against religion because "it is not logical". Okay there Spock, your excessive application of logic is illogical.

It's a symptom of our time, I guess. Scientific studies provide the last word on our questions. Everyone wants someone to provide a path from question-to-answer but some times you cannot take the same path that another person has, and other times, there is no path at all.

[Vigilance]

A mode of human investigation based on deductive reasoning that carries far more emotional baggage than it should.

[crow]

Logic seems to be whatever any individual decides it is.
I find the best kind is the one that delivers you to your destination without covering any ground at all.
It has the disadvantage, though, of seeming either to be mad, or like magic, to anybody else.

[dead last]

No, logic is not whatever anyone decides it is. My description was perfect and to argue with it is illogical.

[crow]

Fair enough. That seems to be the majority consensus.

[Vigilance]

Schools of formal logic are a component in every literate society. The growing pains you lament about were handled by the Greeks who's system collapsed when they realized you could pay people to make logical arguments for personal gain regardless of Truth. Our inheritance of logic is free of those trappings because Logic is absorbed into empiricism.  It is no longer enough to make a logical argument  6. Have to be able to demonstrate your claims. Empiricism and the rules of formal logic maintained by the university are what keep Logic from devolving back into solipsism such as the colloquium you describe. Most people haven't a clue what logic actually is, so your perception is not inaccurate in regards to the human element, but otherwise .....

[lost_wanderer]

Only gods don't need logic. They create it.

[03-04]

Logic is basically just treating language as a consistent system. It's got nothing to do with truth,

Truth is: Either you get it or you don't. If you don't, no amount of logic will take you closer to it. If you do, then logic can be a somewhat useful in expressing it.

But in itself, logic isn't as important as most would have you believe

[The internet shelters weaklings.]

What comes before determines what comes after.

[crow]

Only in Reality.
Include people in the equation, especially mad ones, and that no longer holds true.

[Undermind]

An important distinction to always make when discussing logic is between a priori and a posteriori.  It is almost a fault in our language that there are not distinct words for it as they are often meshed together and reasoned about a single concept.

Logic, as one word, is both universal truths and personal observations about the outside word.  The latter is infinitely more useful but also far more dangerous to apply. 

A prosteriori logic gained over a lifetime is essentially wisdom, something most people sorely lack.  Logic gets its bad name when people mistake their own wisdom to be greater than it actually is.  It is the basis for all hubris.

[crow]

That was a comment worth reading. Nice one!

[Undermind]

It's also an important to know that distinction whenever you get in an argument.  The only purely a priori arguments you will ever encounter will be in a logic class, and they are about as interesting as a primitive math problem. It is the reason why no one ever really "wins" an argument and all politics is an echo chamber.

Everyone makes assumptions based on experiences in their life.  If two people have radically different experiences, there isn't any basis for a meaningful conclusion.

This is how two intelligent people can come to diametrically opposed conclusions based on the same problem.  One can look at violence in society and decide all guns should be banned and another can look at it and decide guns should be more easily available. "There are no facts, only interpretations."