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“To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.”
-Thomas Paine
Introduction
Ancient Greek philosophers, their name itself has that aura claiming them to be "hunters and lovers of knowledge". The world around them was studied and analyzed with reasoning and logic. While we frequently presume philosophy just as something related to religion or spirituality or "the meaning of life", the Ancient Grecian philosophers were prominent scientific scholars who theorized the origin of logic.
Any political, critical, or logical philosophy, according to Ernest Barker, originates with the Greeks. Its origins are linked to the Grecian mind's calm and clear logic. In fact, they were the first to question religion's supremacy and they are the people hungry to discover almost everything.
Several individuals nowadays spend a lot of time pursuing either philosophy or logic in society. That might sound good at first glance but it’s actually regrettable because everything leans so much on both: Philosophy is an integral factor of every domain of human research, and logic is that foundation on which philosophy is based.
Hence, knowing the relationship between the two can make you realize the importance of both.
Origin of Philosophy
‘Philosophy’ stems from the Greek term "filosofía" which means "love of wisdom" and which gives us two main points of arrival: wisdom (knowledge, understanding) and love (or passion).
The philosophy is sometimes followed as if it is a technical discipline such as engineering or mathematics, literally without any passion, again regrettable! Although philosophy has a role for impassioned research, it must be derived with certain dedication and passion for the ultimate objective- a trustworthy and precise understanding of ourselves and our society.
In every sphere of life, be it science, art, or even religion, philosophy has a say — in which philosophy offers some useful notions on objectivity versus subjectivity — politics, and medicine.
Foundation of Ancient Logic
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Faith is the Knowledge of the Heart, Logic the Knowledge of the Mind.
-Erica Jong
Logic as a discipline begins with the change from logical procedures and argument patterns, more or less non-reflecting, to the reflection and examination of these procedures and patterns and their aspects, including syntax and sentence semantics.
The debates of some logical concepts and a concentration on methods of reasoning can be dated back to the 5th century BCE in Greek and Roman antiquity.
The Sophists, and later Plato (early 4th century), we're interested in sentence dissection, truth, and fallacy, and Eubulides of Miletus (mid-4th century) is credited with inventing both the Liar and the Sorites paradoxes.
Introduction to Grecian Numerology
Philosophers in ancient Greece pondered about a wide range of topics, including human nature, logic and rationalism, ethics, and moral concerns. The three groups of ancient Greek philosophers are:
1. The Pre-Socratics: One well-known philosopher was Pythagoras, the mathematician thinker who introduced the Pythagorean Theorem.
2. The Socratics:
Socrates - Treasured for his teaching styles and for asking thought-inciting questions.
Plato - Credited with developing the study of logic
Aristotle - Converges on extended practical measures of philosophy, knowledge, and belief including science
3. The Post-Socratics: Focused their concentration on the self rather than on communal issues; 4 Schools of Philosophy- Cynicism, Epicureanism, Skepticism, and Stoicism.
Major Greek Philosophers Who Valued Logic
Socratic Philosophy
“All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore Socrates is mortal.”
-Aristotle
The very first Hellenic prominent thinker was Socrates and the Socratic Method came forward with him. Through a question and response method, this was a way to study, reason, and analyze difficulties and problems.
Socrates brought political philosophy and the Greeks started to think quite hard over morality, good and evil, and the workings of their society. Socrates did not scribble down much but we learn what Socrates thought about, from his student, Plato’s recordings.
Plato's Logic
“We distrust our heart too much, and our head not enough.”
-Joseph Roux,
Plato utilizes logic without identifying or describing it, just as in everyday life, verbs are engaged without stating or defining "verbs". They can be defined by linguists. Similarly, the Logic of Plato itself describes his logic, Plato does not. He lives through it.
Aristotelian Logic
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“Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing”
-Aristotle
Aristotle is, in essence, the first significant logician on the planet, yet today, the well-known thinker is chiefly regarded as a great Greek philosopher.
In formulating a deductive reasoning approach, Aristotle employed logical principles to underpin his philosophical approach and then implemented both concepts to sciences, to ethics, to metaphysics, and to politics.
The first logician to employ variable parameters was Aristotle. This invention was enormously essential since, in their absence, the universality and abstraction he had indeed done would have been unimaginable to achieve.
In the following sense, the logic of Aristotle was a logical term. Assume the framework: “If every β is an α and every γ is a β, then every γ is an α.” The parameters "α," "β," and “γ” are placeholder variables. Any reasoning in this schema is a true syllogism.
The logic of Aristotelian theory was a term logic in its manner that it concentrated on valid inferences upon the logical relations between these very terms.
Travel back down far enough and it would be apparent that without one, you can't put forth the other, you cannot disentangle philosophy and logic. Philosophy is grounded on the premise that it is necessary to think rationally, to deal with the major (and minor) challenges of the cosmos and logic is the defined way to accomplish this herculean task.
Major Controversies: Is Logic Empirical?
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“The reason is a crutch for age, but youth is strong enough to walk alone.”
-John Dryden
We employ the logical theory which stands true in the contemporary world via observations (empiric data). Hence, our choice of the axioms of logic depends on our findings themselves. Does this also suggest that logic is confined to observations, which aren't really universal truths or eternal, or fundamental?
Logic, like geometry, is based on empirical evidence. It's as sensible to speak about physical logic as about physical geometry. We live in a reality that does not follow classical logic.
The question, "Is Logic Empirical? " for major Greek philosophers, leads naturally into the dispute over realism and anti-realism, ultimately remaining unsolved as one of the deepest issues in modern metaphysics.
The Bottom Line: The Logic of Philosophy
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In his article "Philosophy Now", Rick Lewis explains why logic and philosophy are so integrally intertwined:
“As philosophy is the core of all other areas of human investigation, so logic is the most foundational part of a philosophical theory. Philosophy is built on reasoning and thought, and logic is the analysis of what constitutes the right argument, and of the types of errors in the reasoning.”
So master logic and you'll essentially be a more precise philosopher and thinker.
Written By - Prakriti Chaudhary
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