In Praise of Logic

In Praise of Logic

Student newspapers and periodicals

Mello identifies and conveys the value of logic.

Mello, Michael A.

The Bullet

HIST 298, University of Mary Washington

10-03

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300 dpi

English

Fredericksburg, VA

No student should graduate Mary Washington College, particularly with a non-math or science major, before taking a course in logic. Further, the class should be taken as early in one’s career at MWC as possible; outside of Writing Workshop (which is in part of logic class), I can think of no other course more helpful in general academic life. In this editorial, I shall address two questions. First, what is logic? Second, why is it valuable?

Logic is the understanding of reasoning or, in the definition of Webster’s New International, “the science that deals with the canons and criteria of the validity of thought and demonstration.” Logic, in short in the study of correct thinking.

Correct thinking is a powerful tool to have in any endeavor. The person with the ability to recognize and avoid errors in reasoning will be able to think more clearly and correctly, whatever the subject under analysis might be. Thus, logic has tremendous practical value; as Henry Ruf wrote in the “Chronicle of Higher Education” in 1976, “A person who can analyze problems down to their significant components; who can cut through rhetorical irrelevancies and identify the true structure of an argument and evaluate its worth; who can recognize conceptual confusion in himself and in others and who can supply conceptual clarity; who is trained to think things through; who can uncover presuppositions and hidden assumptions—of such a person any education institution many be justly proud. Even in the outside world with all of its social, economic, and political lunacy, such a person is eminently marketable.”

Logic is particularly helpful within the the context of Mary Washington College. It is certainly crucial in the study of history, the field with which I am most familiar. There is, of course, nothing intrinsically logical about any particular event or series of events in history; it is meaningless to say that the Civil War or Progressivism is or is not “logical.” What must conform to the rules of valid reasoning is the historians’ analyses and conceptualization of those events; too often, the student of history is willing to draw improper inferences from the available evidence and to commit logical fallacies in the presentation of his argument. This is equally true in psychology, sociology, political science, English and any other field that involves the formulation and development of arguments and theses.

The study of logic is at the heart of a liberal arts education, a course of study that attempts to inculcate a general set of orientations rather than the transmission of a given amount of technical knowledge. Harold MacMillan, in a speech he gave at Oxford, put it well: “Gentlemen, you are now about to embark upon a course of studies which will occupy you for two years. Together, they form a noble adventure. But nothing that you will learn in your studies will be of the slightest use to you in afterlife—save only this: that if you work hard and intelligently, you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole, purpose of education.”

Newspaper

Allen, B.H.

Williams, Megan