4 ms·

Also a good formulation. It's amazing how little has been written on the subject (of what logic is.)

pfortuny 5y ago
Well, Aristotle’s studies on logic are called the “organon” (meaning “tool”) exactly because of that.
bmitc 5y ago
> It's amazing how little has been written on the subject (of what logic is.) I’m not sure that’s the case. Just searching “philosophy of logic” yields oodles of resources. It’s an entire field of study.
- boris_m 5y ago
  I meant at a higher lever.
  - bmitc 5y ago
    I'm not really sure what you mean by higher level, but I'm still not sure that's the case if one is assuming you mean works that are more introductory in nature. For example, from the introduction in the first chapter, titled "Consistency", in Wilfred Hodge's Logic: > Logic can be defined as the study of consistent sets of beliefs; this will be our starting-point. Some people prefer to define logic as the study of valid arguments. Between them and us there is no real disagreement, as section 11 will show. But consistency makes an easier beginning. > Logic is about consistency – but not about all types of consistency. ... > The type of consistency which concerns logicians is not loyalty or justice or sincerity; it is compatibility of beliefs. A set of beliefs is consistent if the beliefs are compatible with each other. To give a slightly more precise definition, which will guide us through the rest of this book: a set of beliefs is called consistent if these beliefs could all be true together in some possible situation. The set of beliefs is called inconsistent if there is no possible situation in which all the beliefs are true. Note that this is identical to the parent comment, and this book is originally from the 1970s.
    - boris_m 5y ago
      By higher level, I mean big picture. Not necessarily introductory, but ones that don't employ logical concepts such as "proof", "formal" etc, because you cannot define a field of study using concepts from that field. This example is good, but not sure what are you trying to say by posting it (I didn't say that noone ever wrote anything on what logic is.)
      - drdeca 5y ago
        > because you cannot define a field of study using concepts from that field. Why not?
        boris_m 5y ago
        Because the definition would be circular.
        drdeca 5y ago
        Does a field of study have to be defined in order for the concepts in it to be defined? I don’t see why. Can’t you define concepts x,y,z, and then define the field of study as being “about x,y,z and the things related to them”? I’m guessing you mean something different by “defining a field of study” (different from my default/initial interpretation of the phrase I mean), but I’m not sure what else you mean by it.
        deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
        boris_m 5y ago
        You can do that, but that's surely not the best way to do it, unless the concepts don't have anything to do with each other aside from being part of that field of study.
        drdeca 5y ago
  - guerrilla 5y ago
    Very much has been written at a higher level. There are thousands of advanceds books and dozens of specialized journals.
travisgriggs 5y ago
It is the set of all things not found under the category of illogical.

Well, Aristotle’s studies on logic are called the “organon” (meaning “tool”) exactly because of that.

> It's amazing how little has been written on the subject (of what logic is.) I’m not sure that’s the case. Just searching “philosophy of logic” yields oodles of resources. It’s an entire field of study.

boris_m 5y ago
I meant at a higher lever.
- bmitc 5y ago
  I'm not really sure what you mean by higher level, but I'm still not sure that's the case if one is assuming you mean works that are more introductory in nature. For example, from the introduction in the first chapter, titled "Consistency", in Wilfred Hodge's Logic: > Logic can be defined as the study of consistent sets of beliefs; this will be our starting-point. Some people prefer to define logic as the study of valid arguments. Between them and us there is no real disagreement, as section 11 will show. But consistency makes an easier beginning. > Logic is about consistency – but not about all types of consistency. ... > The type of consistency which concerns logicians is not loyalty or justice or sincerity; it is compatibility of beliefs. A set of beliefs is consistent if the beliefs are compatible with each other. To give a slightly more precise definition, which will guide us through the rest of this book: a set of beliefs is called consistent if these beliefs could all be true together in some possible situation. The set of beliefs is called inconsistent if there is no possible situation in which all the beliefs are true. Note that this is identical to the parent comment, and this book is originally from the 1970s.
  - boris_m 5y ago
    By higher level, I mean big picture. Not necessarily introductory, but ones that don't employ logical concepts such as "proof", "formal" etc, because you cannot define a field of study using concepts from that field. This example is good, but not sure what are you trying to say by posting it (I didn't say that noone ever wrote anything on what logic is.)
    - drdeca 5y ago
      > because you cannot define a field of study using concepts from that field. Why not?
      - boris_m 5y ago
        Because the definition would be circular.
        drdeca 5y ago
        Does a field of study have to be defined in order for the concepts in it to be defined? I don’t see why. Can’t you define concepts x,y,z, and then define the field of study as being “about x,y,z and the things related to them”? I’m guessing you mean something different by “defining a field of study” (different from my default/initial interpretation of the phrase I mean), but I’m not sure what else you mean by it.
        deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
        boris_m 5y ago
        You can do that, but that's surely not the best way to do it, unless the concepts don't have anything to do with each other aside from being part of that field of study.
        drdeca 5y ago
- guerrilla 5y ago
  Very much has been written at a higher level. There are thousands of advanceds books and dozens of specialized journals.

travisgriggs 5y ago

It is the set of all things not found under the category of illogical.