Aristotle was right when he argued that accepting contradictions as true leads to utter incoherence and madness. Contradictions lead to bad thinking. Out of a contradiction, we can “prove” the moon is made out of cheese, that black is white and white is black, and that four is not identical to four.
Logic is truly a part of the liberal arts; it’s not just mathematics. We can read better and write better when we understand logic better. There are many good reasons to learn logic!
All of us should be humble to the vast amount of knowledge available. Estimate that relative to your own. What would that estimate round to? About zero percent. At most, it’s just a tiny fraction of one percent. As the saying goes: the more you know, the more you know that you don’t know.
Researching anything is an overwhelming task that can seem unending. How many thousands of books and articles have been written on World War II alone? Where does someone begin? Unless you are superhuman, choices have to be made. It’s a tricky process! We can pretend to be “independent” thinkers, but all of us rely on those who we deem expert authorities.
In more ways than one are we “social animals.” That includes how we learn. Are there not “canonical texts” that shape us and society? Are not certain authors of the distant past living with us in the present? Society is no “blank slate.”
The future depends on the present and the past. Knowledge and ideas are not universally created anew nor derive out of a single person’s head. Things take place in a historical, cultural, and communal or social setting. Further, there is conflicting, contradictory, and divisive discourse within. An individual must learn how to navigate.
That’s the first step to become good at researching.
Learning to navigate, in part, depends upon developing our skills in logic and critical thinking skills. It also depends upon finding good expert authorities to help us learn about the given topic we are researching.
For example, I’ve taken some advanced mathematics with good professors. That’s how I first learned about mathematical logic. I’ve taken Professor Gerard Casey’s traditional logic course at LibertyClassroom.com. And I’ve read many, many books on logic, philosophy, and mathematics.
