VPN – Plain Logic vs. Mathematical Logic

Join the Virtual Philosophy Network (www.virtualphilosophynetwork.com) and SD Philosophers’ Roundtable (www.meetup.com/The-San-Diego-Philosophers-Roundtable/) for a seminar on philosophical logic.

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To all who RSVP, I will post the link to the online meeting about roughly, maybe 10 minutes before the event.

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Following the meeting last time, https://www.meetup.com/The-San-Diego-Philosophers-Roundtable/events/kxhtsqybcnbhc/ , which develops foundationalism (a theory of justification) on a different foundation from conventional philosophy, let us reappraise logic as both a science and an art of thinking about reality.

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Plain Logic vs. Mathematical Logic:

The rise of mathematical logic in 20th-century philosophy has seen a corresponding decline in the use of logic in society. It is as if logic has become too difficult to be taught, learned, and used in everyday living.

For a society to thrive, its members need to be rational; for them to be rational, they need to learn and use logic widely. In this context, mathematical logic has failed.

1. I argue that logic as a science needs to be decoupled from mathematics (as well as set theory) and to be re-developed to closely parallel the development of natural language if it has any chance at all to equip people to flourish in a complex, modern society.

2. I introduce plain logic and compare it to mathematical logic, showing that it has the same expressive and deductive power but easier to use, demonstrating too the absence of besetting paradoxes that let in doubters and cynics.

3. I argue that with plain logic teachable as an art even to young teens, members of society can once again find a reason to trust the power of logical reasoning.

[Pics:
Clever Venn diagrams, https://medium.com/wildish-and-co/15-brilliant-venn-diagrams-782893b2c465
]