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Writer's pictureFederica Pasqualone

Does our logic shape the reality?

Have you had great thoughts this week? I mean, have you conceived new ideas, concepts, projects, goals, Kopfkino … How many times have you found yourself in judgemental activity? I guess thousand of times, but now you were prepared, now you were exactly knowing what was happening in there, when your statements came to existence.

Gut gemacht!


München, Englischer Garten - Ph. me

“Take care not to listen to anyone who tells you what you can and can’t be in life.”

– Meg Medina


Back to our matter of concerns though, what makes a judgement a good judgement?

- I see a fully red door.

- I see a fully black door.

If it is black cannot be red, unless you have many doors in front of you. Let’s hypothesise the existence of just one door. Thus, it is apparent it cannot be red and black simultaneously.


Therefore the statement is either true or false, tertium non datur! Hahaha


For apodictic judgements, this works pretty well I must admit. When we judge something necessarily in one way, the opposite statement must be thus false.

Kant called it: The principle of the excluded middle.


Suppose you are thinking of something as possible, i.e. making a problematic judgement.


-The door can be red.

-The door can be black.


Both are formally grounded, do not contradict each other and are not equal to each other. Hence, here you are the second principle: The principle of contradiction and of identity.


And the final one: The principle of sufficient reason. Put yourself for a moment in the shoes of somebody about to form an assertoric judgement. With what you would motivate the well-posedness of the statement? Aber ganz einfach: Is there a sufficient reason to predicate this as logically actually true?


What about concepts? A concept is logically possible if it is non-contradictory.

Whenever you are applying these axioms, keep in mind the objects of the statements may or may not be true (exist). This is a formal system!


To sum up, any true logical statement is indeed apodictic, but if we want to infer something on the reality here is the key: It must be logically grounded, i.e. following from true judgements without false consequences. Infer, be careful, means in this place to say something more, something that is not anymore based on the perception. A pure construction of our mind.


Next: What are the effects of choosing a different logic?


See you!

Federica


 

References:

  • Kannisto T., Modality and Metaphysics in Kant, DOI: 10.1515/9783110246490.1469.

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