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THE ESSENCE OF FORMAL LOGIC: SIMPLE AND USEFUL RULES THAT ARE NOT OBJECTIVELY TRUE
来源:WOP in Education, Social Sciences and Psycholopy, Volume:107 (March 30-31, 2024), pp.116-123. | 作者:Yong Duan | 发布时间: 2024-06-24 | 2216 次浏览 | 分享到:
Abstract: Logic is the rule of rational thinking. When thinking is expressed in language, logic becomes the rule of language. Logic is not the law of objective things, each discipline studies different laws, while logic is applicable to all disciplines because all disciplines use rational thought and language. Logical judgment is not necessarily the truth. In the subjective world, the simple atomic concepts can never change. In the objective world, concrete things are complicated, so A can be different from A. The rules of formal logic, such as the law of identity, the law of exclusion of middle and the law of non-contradiction, are the rules of the subjective world, and are the methods to deal with the logical structures in the subjective world, rather than the methods to deal with the real things in the objective world. The understanding of any objective thing requires a process from simple to complex. In the beginning stage of cognition, we must simplify and abstract complex objects, and use formal logic when simplifying and abstracting. For example, suppose that the Chaobai River this year is the same river as the Chaobai River in the past ten years, and then use the hydrological data of the past ten years to predict the situation of the river this year. This hypothesis is simple and useful but not objectively true. Making objective things obey the rules of formal logic is entirely artificial. Because only by following these rules can we derive useful conclusions. The purpose of simplification is to make the sentences do not contain contradictions, easy to thinking and calculation. The actual objective things contain contradictions and do not conform to formal logic. So dialectical logic negates the rules of formal logic.
Key words: Logic philosophy; Formal logic; Dialectical logic; Useful; Objectivity

1. Introduction

If I say that I first saw the lightning and then heard the thunder, this statement is logical. If I were to say that I heard thunder and then saw lightning, it would be illogical. So what's the logic? The theory in the logic textbook is of course logic, but we are talking about much more than that. The following will discuss the true meaning and value of logic, analyze the nature of formal logic, and then compare the difference between formal logic and dialectical logic.

2. What Is Logic

2.1 Definition of Logic

Our brains are in constant motion, in addition to receiving sensory experience, they are also constantly thinking. Thinking is to make new products of thought from existing products of thought. Thought includes perceptual thinking and rational thinking. Perceptual thinking is thinking without rules, rational thinking is thinking with rules, also called reasoning. Logic is the rule of reasoning. When thinking is expressed in language, logic becomes the rule of language. The rules of words and single sentence are called grammar, and the rules of relations between sentences are called logic.

Definition: Logic is the rational rule of relations between statements.

Logic is not the law of objective things. Logic appeared after the emergence of human rational thinking, there is no logic before the emergence of rational thinking. If logos means objective laws, then logos is quite different from logic. For example, the relationship between force and acceleration is an objective law that has existed since the Big Bang, but there was no logic then.

Objective laws need to be expressed in language, so many philosophers call objective laws logic, which is completely wrong. Each discipline studies different laws, and logic applies to all disciplines because all disciplines use rational thought and language. When language is used to reflect reality, language is a simulation of reality. Simulation is to imitate a real thing with a fake thing. Some of the structures and properties of the fake thing should be the same as those of being imitated, so some rules must be laid down for the use of language, and this is how logical rules arise.

Logical judgment is not necessarily the truth. Logical unity can be used as an alternative criterion for judging truth, but it is not the final criterion, the final criterion is practice and value. For example, the conclusions of quantum mechanics work well in practice, but are illogical. On the contrary, the content of judgments and reasoning may be wrong, but these wrong judgments and reasoning may be logical. For example, all crows are white birds, and the bird I saw today is black, so it can't be a crow. The main premise and conclusion of this reasoning are wrong, but the process of this reasoning is not logically wrong.

2.2 Extended Meaning of Logic

In the mechanical craft class, teachers often tell a case called hollow ball. A designer designed a hollow metal ball, after drawing let the factory make it out. The factory worker said he could not. If the two hemispheres were processed separately and then assembled together, they could be hollow, but how could the hollow part inside a complete ball be processed? How did knives get in? If it was cast, how did the sand core come out? It was not logical, it was easy for a designer to draw such a ball on a drawing, because the drawing was fake and could ignore the logic of everyday life, but to actually produce a real hollow ball, it must be logical.