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A study of logic:Logic in everyday life

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Logic

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Hong Kong Polytechnic University - PolyU HK

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2016 Kam Por Yu C+

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A study of logic:Logic in everyday life

 

Introduction

In our everyday life, we experience different kinds of problems. Some of them are easy to solve, while the others, are somehow much harder to figure out the true solution. In fact, to solve each question, we would have to think carefully about the causes and the facts, whether they are closely connected, or they are just some irrelevant stuffs. The dictionary defines this kind of thinking process that to get the final answer, we must think carefully through some necessary steps and find out the relations between the facts and premises, as thinking logical. This essay is written to prove that logic is playing an important role during our daily life. Being logical is also significantly necessary in our everyday life.

Definition

Before any discussion that I will be making, I would like to first introduce the meaning of logic. We can often see some quizzes on the websites or books saying that they are testing the logic of us, they somehow show the importance of logic in our life. Since if one thing is worth testing, it must be very important in our life just like other subjects we have been studying in schools and college which also have a lot of quizzes and exams. Referring to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2016), logic has been defined as a reasonable way that people use to think and understand something. Furthermore, it has also been described as a science that studies the procedure of thinking and understanding. So, there are typically two aspects of studies in logic. One of them is that the study of logic as a thinking process that we are using in our daily life, taking the examples such as logical thinking in court debating, reasoning while making investigation on cases and our study career; the other one is that the logic being a science, the application and the development of it, which gives a regulation of thinking and reasoning. In this essay I will discuss the aspects mentioned above, and give some examples to specify the different kind of logic skills being used in different situations so we can see through the problems more clearly.

Logic in Case Study

Firstly, I would like to introduce the application of logic in the criminal detection fields. Sir. Conan Doyle (1886) has written in his well-known detective novel Sherlock Holmes that the truth is the remain of what you have already eliminated all the impossible things. During a case investigate, detectives discover and collect evidences through observing the criminal scene carefully. Just take the very first case Holmes investigates with Watson, A Study of Scarlet, as an example. Holmes observed the crime scene of the red scarlet. By measuring the distance between the steps printed by the murderer, Holmes can conclude the rough height and the rough age of the criminal. Also, by observing the horse shoes printed on the ground, he can also infer that the horse has a newer horse shoe than the other three shoes because one of the print is much clearer than the other ones. By acknowledging that the powder on the wall had been scraped down, he knew that the criminal must have been wearing long fingernail. Although the information seems quite simple and obvious as we read the novel in the modern times, they are significantly useful at the time Sir Doyle write the novel. Today, with a digital camera and similar devices, one can restore exactly what happened at the time crime was committed easily. Besides, Erle Stanley (1960) implied the use of logic in his series of novel whose protagonist was named Mason, a lawyer that aims to discover the truth of his cases. The novel mainly describing the court shows that reasoning plays a significant role in court, because the judge made by the court is largely depend on lawyers’ and prosecutors’ proof and debate. A reasonable and logical evidence providing can affect the final court decision. Because while people listening in the court, they can only judge the situation by what the witness says, what the lawyer says and what the prosecutor says. Many art works written are essentially based on the debating of the lawyers and prosecutors.

Take a case in a famous series of anime, movie and games Ace Attorney (2001) as an example, the crimes are usually appeared in an obvious situation that the accused is guilty at the first glance. But with the new evidences coming out and with new statements coming up with witnesses, the situation will be changed because there are flaws in the statements, thus the statements cannot be reliable. However, we cannot judge a statement be completely dishonest simply because its inconsistent to the evidence. We can infer some information from the criminal scene and the evidences, and with multiple evidences and statements coming out, we can connect the information together and make them into a chain. Thus, it is more easily for us to identify the possible problems and flaws between evidences and statements. After identifying the flaws in the evidence chain, we should investigate the scene or evidence again carefully, finding out if the witness is lying or we have missed anything important. After proper thinking of the evidences discovered and witnesses’ statements, we can infer the possible situation happened at the time crime was committed, and by that time we can get the answer for the case if there is no paradox in the conclusion and between the evidence chain. Take the Circus case as an example, Galactica was said to be the only man at the scene by several witnesses, he was also accused of having conflict with the victim so that he was the most suspicious man that could commit the crime.  However, Wright finally found out that the witnesses were only identifying Galactica by saying that they saw a shadow which was like the shape of Galactica. Also, with the remaining corner of a script on the blackboard, Wright managed to find out the missing part that has important writing on it says ‘come to meet me at 10’. Furthermore, he indicated that the magician Galactica was unable to perform a skillful flying without sufficient arrangement at the performing stage, and there was no similar trace of arranging near the crime scene. So, the criminal cannot be Galactica. After finding the conflict between the statements provided by the daughter of victim and the injured ropewalker, the suspect can be proved innocent. Afterwards the suspicion of the injured rope walker increased, for Wright has discovered the tragedy that occurred years before that the ropewalker’s little brother was kill by that lion in an accident while performing because of the neckerchief with pepper on it sent by the daughter of the victim as a birthday gift. By observing further investigation of Phoenix Wright, the protagonist, we can discover that more and more evidence indicates that the murderer was that injured ropewalker and the actual target was the daughter of the victim because the ropewalker wanted to revenge for his little brother. Because the possible lethal weapon, a statue of Galactica, was not found during the search conducted by the procuratorate after the ropewalker was under control by police department, the only possible outcome is that the statue was brought out with the ropewalker. This directly proved the guilty of that injured ropewalker.

Logic in Science and Research

The above cases are mainly focused on the application of logical thinking in case observation and court debating. The requirement of which is quite high, however, in our daily life we may not have such occasion to incur similar conflicts. For example, while we are studying in the college or high school, many subjects also require logical thinking to solve some seemingly hard questions. Logic is most useful in mathematics and physics.

While we are doing science problems, we are usually required to make a conclusion by deducing the given premises. Such questions are very challenging because it doesn’t require much calculation. So, it means one cannot do it right and quick only with good arithmetic skill. Take the physics proof made by Galileo (1610) as an example. The famous double ball experiment that overturned the conclusion given by Aristotle, which is the heavier objects falls faster, by assuming a condition which leads to a paradox conclusion, in detail, that is, a small cap together with a big bottle body. By Aristotle’s theory, the cap falls slower than the body, so while we bind them together, the whole speed should fall between the original speed of the body and the cap, that is, faster than the cap but slower than the body. However, as the cap and the body are bound together, the weight become larger, so the fallen speed should also become larger. This leads to a paradox with the previous conclusion that the speed should lie between two original speed. This is just a simple case in physics study. The similar situations should also occur in mathematics, chemistry and biology. We have covered a lot of examples since we get into high school. Another science assumption proved by Newton is that the reason why objects keep moving. It was previous described by Aristotle that an object keep its motion because a force was exerted on that object. However, Newton made an experiment. He made some slope track of different gradient but same height which fall at the beginning and then rise to the same height at the end. He put a metal ball at the beginning of the track and observe the behavior of the ball. He found that the ball always roll to the same height where he released it. This means that no matter how oblique the track is, the ball always goes up to the original height, regardless of how long distance it will travel. Newton then assumed, what if the latter part of the track is not oblique but plane? Because the ball wants to go to the original height, but the track never reaches the height, so the ball will keep going without stopping. So, the ball will go infinitely far and keep the same speed. In this case, the ball doesn’t have a force exerted on it but also keeps moving. This give a proof that force is not the reason why objects keep moving. And by further deduction, he concluded that the force is the reason why an object change its moving status.

The similar logic is also used by us students to learn our subjects better. Especially in our math learning experience. Being strictly logic is one of the characteristic of math. We are often required to prove different math assumptions and solve different problems. Every time we do the questions step by step to show a clear thought about the solution. We also use lots of logic methods to take out math problems. For example, in some math questions, we must prove that if situation A happens, then the equation must have a fixed characteristic B. in this case, situation B is quite like situation A and thus the relationship between A and B can be used again on B to deduct situation C. This is the analogy method used to solve many sequence problems and is very useful when finding the nth(given) number of a sequence. Also in many proof questions, we often use exclusive method and reduction to absurdity to proof some tricky problems. We often assume the opposite condition is right, then by deduction we find out that all other assumptions lead to contradiction. So, the left one must be the true answer to the question. Besides math and physics, language learning also requires strong ability to apply logic while thinking. Not only the time when you debate with others, but the most basic talking skills such as constructing a sentence. Everyone’s first experience of logic begins in his language learning process. To express a certain intention to others, we are not only required to speak out all the words which contain the content we want to express, but also construct them into a sentence effectively without ambiguity. Every language has a system of constructing sentences and paragraphs. The system of regulation is called the grammar of the language. We usually construct our sentences based on this regulation. If we don’t obey the law, then the others will not be able to understand what we are talking about. The subject, verb, and other adjectives must comply a certain order to express certain meaning. This is the most widely used logic in our everyday life. Also, this regulation is different between different languages. Chinese and Japanese, for example, have completely different structure of sentences. In Chinese, we usually put the privative before the things we want to describe. For example, to express the fact that ‘I didn’t have meal’ , we say “(I)没有(didn’t)(have)(meal)”. However, in Japanese, we say “私(I)はご飯を食(have meal)べない(not). In this case, we cannot just plainly translate the previous sentence word by word into the later one, we need to change the sequence of words and add in some local words to make the sentence sounds smooth. The same thing happens in almost any two different languages in the world. While we are translating one sentence to another language, we consider not only the comprehension of the original sentencebut also the condition of the target language. We should not only consider whether the structure is appropriate, the meaning is clear, the sentence is easy to understand but also some advanced requirements such as the match of writing style. Take the translation of workpieces of Shakespeare as an example, the word he used are often old time English or some ancient words, so while we are translating his work, we use classical Chinese and try to make some rhythm between the sentences, which are the skills used by ancient Chinese when they are writing. These skills all require a strong sense of logic when constructing a new sentence.

Conclusion

To sum up, logic is a very important tool in our life and we should learn it well and use it wisely. The usage of logic covers many different aspects in our life. From the most common things we use to some rare heard subjects, the developing of humanity cannot leave the development of logic. We cannot avoid using it in different situations and it makes a lot of difference among every person. Because logic will not only be useful in everyday life simple as some logic test, but also in determining people’s lives and their death. We may don’t have to study the logic into a very deep level as we may not likely to develop logic further as a science. But the mastery of logic will surely get us wiser and make everything in the world clearer. As our human culture is basically based on the logic of our thinking and behavior.

Reference

CAPCOM. (2001). Ace Attorney. Microsoft Windows: CAPCOM Ltd.

Doyle, A. C. (1887). A Study of Scarlet. London: Ward Lock & Co.

Gardner, E. S. (2015). Perry Mason: The case of the velvet claws. New York: American Bar Association.

Galilei, G. (1610). Sidereus Nuncius. Republic of Venice: Thomas Baglioni.

Merriam, G. & Merriam, C. (2016). Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Springfield: Merriam-Webster, Inc.


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