What is logic and how does it work?

Pardon me ahead of time for the lengthy and, at times, undoubtedly foolish words which follow. I hope that with them I can save you some time and energy. I also hope that you will enjoy.

Not everything needs a (self-distinct) answer to why it is. Once you understand what logic is, which you'll only discover by doing enough of it, then you'll understand that it's not the kind of thing that needs such a reason to be. You'll understand that it doesn't even exist like most other things we think about exist, and that "logic" is just a term for something like "order". The analogy might run like this: "When things exist there's always some order among them, and when no thing exists there's perfect order; so order itself always exists regardless of whatever else does or does not. Similarly, although there can be many very different ways of ordering things, all of them are examples of the same general concept picked out by 'order'.". Logic is just what helps us recognize order and which provides mental categories for "raw experience", thus making true experience, of or by anything, possible.

Right now you probably feel at times that logic's not needing an answer is somehow "special pleading" or "a double standard". "Why shouldn't logic need an answer?!" you might ask with great indignation. But it's logic itself that makes you see the oddness of its not needing a reason, and makes you feel that its somehow just not "right" or "fair" to the other things which do need reasons. In some sense though, logic itself is what provides whatever reasons to be there are for the other things. It's also logic itself that allows you to have the concepts of "circular", "prove", "why", "answer", "develop" and more that you use in asking your question. It's logic itself that gives your question whatever intelligibility it has.

You mentioned that logic "proving" itself is circular, and that's true. But logic "disproving" itself would have to be circular as well. How would you go about showing that logic has a reason other than itself? You'd presumably have to go "outside" logic to establish this: to illogic. But what tools does illogic offer which would allow you to judge between it and logic? Dice-throwing perhaps? That's neither proof nor disproof of anything. Either reason is a reliable guide, in which case you should use it, or it is not, in which case you should abandon it. But finding a reason to abandon it requires you to make a reasoned evaluation that reason itself is unreliable. If it gave you that then you shouldn't trust it, since it's unreliable. If it doesn't give you that then you have no reason to stop trusting it. Therefore, either way, you can have no reason to stop trusting it. This remains true even if your chief aim is to avoid reliable guides because, paradoxically, to reliably avoid reliable guides you must have one.

You're on the right path when you talk about "indigenous peoples" and how, no matter their differences in belief from us, at least they have and use some sort of logic. Neitzsche wrote "logic [came] into existence in man's head [out] of illogic, whose realm originally must have been immense. Innumerable beings who made inferences in a way different from ours perished". But it is worth noting that those innumerable beings in supposed illogic are making inferences; it doesn't matter how radically different from ours they are, they are still inferences. And inference, any pattern of inference at all, is the realm of logic. So it seems as if nothing has perished but that everything has been right here in logic all along. It is logic's realm that is immense.

It's precisely because of the omnipresent, omnipotent, inescapable, ineluctable, ineffable scope of logic that people have tied their understanding of it to their religion for so long; witness, for just one example, "Logos".

So many people for so long have written on this subject, from earliest history to the present day, that I will not try to provide a reading list for you other than to name one of the earliest who addressed your question:

http://www.parmenides.com/about_parmenides/Parmeni...

If you're interested I may be able to provide further examples of this subject as it's dealt with both in philosophical literature and in popular media.

Cheers, and keep up the thinking.

Let's keep it simple.

Logic can only work when presented with facts (not opinions) that can be ordered, analyzed, and compared to yield a given result.

For example, if 2x = 6, we are given a fact. So what is the value of x? Logically, if 2x = 6, then (2x/2) = 6/2. 6/2 = 3, therefore x = 3. There are no other possible solutions. This is logic.

However, if we note that Mary is a girl, and that Mary has red hair, then we could say that all red-haired girls are named Mary. This of course, would be a logical fallacy, due to the comparatively small size of our sampling.

Logic is tricky. We can often make incorrect assumptions due to exclusion of relevant factors (such as the actual names of all red-haired girls in the world). This is not a failing of logic, but rather, the logician.

This is a hard question to answer, here we go. You see logic everywhere you go, like you said, everyone uses it. Logic did not develop, logic has just been there. Now this a problem that Atheist have, they can not come up with a good reason to explain logic. Actually no reason at all. The only way we can have logic the way we see it on this earth. With all the properties they have, it has to be given to us. Not only by a higher being but by a being who transcends space and times like logic does. The conclusion is that God gave us logic because God is logical, since we are made in the image of God we see his characteristics in us. Then to answer the question on how this works is because God is the giver of logic and thats how it works. Hope this helps

problem with the first truth... if conservatives don't have sex because they could't arise with the money for condoms, then why are the utmost parts of youngsters being pregnant in the country positioned in the agricultural pink states? merely curious... the version on the middle of both logics is that liberal has a tendency to be more advantageous in touch with communities and conservative has a tendency to be about me

Philosophically speaking, it is also one of the subjects taught in schools and colleges. It works with some reason. Nothing happens in this world without any reason.

You will come to know everything in life only when that ideal opportunity comes. Maturity comes after acquiring qualifications, knowledge, experience, skill, acumen, etc.

It's a way to test for the bee ess (bulldonkey).

Which statements are true? Well...If A = B, and B = C, then surely A must = C.

You see? If something doesn't follow that equation, we can tell if it is bullhockey puck or not.

Logic is the theory behind what appear to be the truth, like anything else it is subjective.