The art of using Reason* well in our inquiries after truth, and the communication of it to others. *Reason – includes all of the intellectual attributes of man. – Isaac Watts. Logic
Logic is the study of the methods & principles used to distinguish correct from incorrect reasoning. – Copi & Cohen. Introduction to Logic 12th Ed.
Logic is the study of argument. – Engel. With Good Reason 6th Ed.
Logic prescribes how to combine concepts into judgments & judgments into syllogisms & chains of reasoning so as to achieve truth. – Sister Joseph. The Trivium.
Logic is, indeed, the science of human reasoning, or the study of the rules, laws, means, and ways humans should think. – McDurmon. Biblical Logic.
Logic, then, is the science which studies the general principles in accordance with which we think about things, whatever things they may be; and so it presupposes that we have thought about things. – Joseph. An Introduction to Logic.
Logic, says J. S. Mill, in the Introduction to his work, is common ground on which the partisans of Hartley and of Reid, of Locke and of Kant may meet and join hands.
Logic is concerned primarily with (1) validity of arguments and (2) consistency of propositions. – Dr. John Frame
As you can see Logic affords us as many definitions as there are definers. But from all of these we can reduce it down to a simple definition for our use. Logic is the study of correct reasoning and argumentation as opposed to incorrect reasoning and argumentation. Correct and incorrect imply an objective standard for truth. Such an objective standard must be absolute, invariant, transcendent and yet immanent. The only standard that meets these conditions is the Bible. For Logic, to be of any use and have any “authority”, it cannot have its foundations in the subjectivism of autonomous human reasoning. It must exists above and apart from human reasoning and must be an expression of God himself. In my previous post, The Laws of Logic as an Expression of God’s Character, I demonstrated that the 4 Laws of Logic have their origins in God’s way of thinking. Because Logic has its foundation in God’s way of thinking, it is universal, extending to all spheres of human endeavor. Because how God thinks is expressed in the Bible, we can, and in fact are commanded to, conform our way of thinking to God’s way of thinking expressed in the Bible. This allows us to use the toolbox of Logic to investigate and come to the knowledge of truth in all areas of human reasoning.
Why Should Christians Use Logic?
The Cultural Mandate.
How can we subdue creation to the glory of God, without knowing how to reason? In carrying out the cultural mandate logic becomes indispensable. If we don’t know how to reason properly, which is the realm of logic, how are we to carry out the cultural mandate? The cultural mandate calls us to think logically. Mathematics, the language of science, has logic as its foundation. Without logical reasoning science would become impossible and we would fall back into the Dark Ages of myth and superstition. The Reformation, with it’s emphasis on Sola Scriptura, led mankind out of superstitious darkness into the light of sound, Biblical reasoning. With the supremacy of the Bible as the foundation of reasoning, the sciences grew. In cultures were the Bible is not the foundation for reasoning, science is stillborn. For a modern example of this we only have to look at the violent 7th century religion of death, known as Islam. Though muslims had some scientific advances at times, the overall worldview of Islam made the scientific advances of the west, due to our Christian worldview, impossible for the muslims. Continue reading “What is Logic and Why Should Christians Use It?”
