WHAT IS LOGIC?

Objectives
a. Define and explain what Logic entails.
b. Demonstrate the importance of logic in the academia and everyday life of
individuals.
c. Explain obstacles to thinking logically
Nawa Stephen
 Logic

 LOGIC: Logos – word, reason,

discourse, sentence, rule
 Aristotle came up with the first
complete system of Logic, which was
written under the title of “Organon”
or “Instrument” (of Knowledge).
 His Logic is classified as “syllogistic.”
 Logic
Logic is the study of the methods and principles used to
distinguish correct from incorrect reasoning
 Reasoning consists of a sequence of statements, some of which are
claimed to follow from previous ones. i.e, some are claimed to be
inferred from others, e.g,
 Mary has got an A on all her work for the course other than the
upcoming final exam. Furthermore, she has always performed well on
exams. She will, therefore, pass the course.
 Reasoning entails making arguments to support conclusions
 Arguments entail reasons for justifying our beliefs
 But not all reasons are good reasons
 Does the conclusion reached follow from the premises assumed?
 Reasoning is not the only way in which people support assertions they
make or accept (emotions/authority are persuasive too)
 Logic
• Logic is the science and art of correct thinking

– SCIENCE because it is a systematized body of logical truths and

principles governing correct reasoning
– As an ART, logic is a techne and teaches us how to make good
arguments
– Logic is CORRECT when it conforms to a patter or some rules, e.g
Human beings are rational entities
Abale is a human being
Therefore, Abale is a rational entity
– THINKING is a rational process – it involves, analysis, definition,
classification, comparison & contrast etc.
• It guides or directs us to form correct ideas
• Logic is a science that serves as a tool for the mind to reason
out correctly.
– It pertains to the study of rules and principles for making correct
arguments.
– Rules should be understood, not memorized.
– Understanding means being able to apply.
• The core of the science of logic lies in its collection of universal rules that
determine truth in the flow of the kinds of statements we make.
• Logic - a discovery of the norms of correct thinking.
• It is a science primarily concerned with arguments.
 Logic vs Psychology
• Logic tells us how we ought to reason if we want to reason correctly.
– Whether people actually follow these rules of correct reasoning is an
empirical matter, something that is not the concern of logic.
• Psychology of reasoning tells us about the actual reasoning habits of
people, including their mistakes.
– It is an empirical science.
– A psychologist studying reasoning might be interested in how people's
ability to reason varies with age
Logic Psychology
Tells what the mind ought to do, logically Studies the actual Way the mind works,
i.e. what the mind is.
It is a normative science; it imposes rules It is an empirical science; it studies actual
and norms for thinking. facts.
 Principles of Logic?
• There are many principles, but the main (not the only) thing that we study
in logic are principles governing the validity of arguments -
whether certain conclusions follow from some given
assumptions,
If Tom shows symptoms X, Y & Z, then Tom has covid.
Tom shows symptoms X, Y & Z.
Therefore, Tom has covid.

If Botswana is in Africa, then Botswana is not in China.

Botswana is in Africa.
Therefore, Botswana is not in China.
These are good arguments – their conclusions follow from the assumptions.
If assumptions are true, then conclusions must also be true.
Besides validity, logic also studies consistency & logical truth, all which are
related to validity
 Types of Logic
1. FORMAL LOGIC - the study of inference with purely formal and explicit
content.
– It uses formal systems (logical calculus) to derive conclusions from
premises.
2. INFORMAL LOGIC - studies natural language arguments & attempts to
develop a logic to assess, analyze and improve ordinary language
reasoning
– Natural language - language that is spoken or written by humans for
general-purpose communication.
– Focuses on the reasoning and argument one finds in personal
exchange, advertising, political debate, legal argument, and the social
commentary that characterizes newspapers, television, the Internet
and other forms of mass media.
 Types of Logic
3. SYMBOLIC LOGIC - the study of symbolic abstractions that capture the
formal features of logical inference.
 It deals with the relations of symbols to each other, often using
complex mathematical calculus, in an attempt to solve hard
problems, e.g ~ G > (A v B)
 Symbolic logic has two further sub disciplines
 Propositional Logic
 Predicate Logic
4. MATHEMATICAL LOGIC - the application of the techniques of formal
logic to mathematics and mathematical reasoning
• Commonly used in computer science, coding, programming
[Logic is] ... the name of a discipline which analyzes
the meaning of the concepts common to all the
sciences, and establishes the general laws governing
the concepts.
Alfred Tarski (1901-1983). Introduction to logic and to
the methodology of deductive sciences, page xi.

To discover truths is the task of all sciences; it falls to

logic to discern the laws of truth. ... I assign to logic
the task of discovering the laws of truth, not of
assertion or thought.
Gottlob Frege (1848-1925). From his 1956 paper The
Thought : A Logical Inquiry in Mind Vol. 65.