What Good Is Logic?

What Good Is Logic?

Logic, as I would define, is a way of reasoning involving a series of statements which should lead to a reasonable decision or conclusion. Simply, it is a way of knowing. The ways of reasoning include deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning. Deduction is reasoning from particular to general. An example of this would be All birds can fly, a sparrow is a bird, and therefore all sparrows can fly the argument moves from a generalisation that all birds can fly to a particular kind of bird can all fly because it is a bird. There is a logical pattern. The argument here is valid because of the use of language and the structure of the sentence, the use of the word all allows us to conclude with validity and the way the sentence is constructed with it focusing on the bird, and not the flying. For example All birds can fly, Tom can fly, and therefore Tom is a bird this is not a valid example because Tom may be a butterfly or a grasshopper, so we also need to combine the use of language and understanding to reach a valid conclusion. Vague language can lead to bad reasoning. A valid conclusion may not be the truth because the argument may not be valid and the premises may not be true, it is very dependent on its premises because a false premise can lead to a false result. So this is a good way of knowing the particular.

The opposite of what I have just mentioned is inductive reasoning which is reasoning from particular to the general. This applies mostly to everyday life things and scientific theories of which we now think as fact. For example, I treat my dog well and he loves me, therefore he will not run away in the future it is logical thinking to think that because my dog loves me that I can simply make a generalisation that he will not run away from me. But often the results of this reasoning can lead to unreasonable conclusion such as because maybe woman often get into car accidents to a higher...