A question of logic

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

A question of logic…

We often say, that is a logical course of action… but what does that
actually, mean or entail? In thinking about logic, we are, to be blunt,
human beings… and what seems logically to us, is logical because
we are human beings… we have the same senses, the same thinking
process, we have the same needs, wants and desires… we can have
human based logic because at its heart, we are roughly the same…
We, by being human, can view such things as logic or reason,
roughly the same way…

But let us take an Alien from outer space… would they understand
our form of logic? Our logic is a human construct, how would aliens
from the planet, Vulcan, for example, understand a human construct like
logic? and the same goes true for us understanding alien logic…
they start from a totally different place, with totally different values
and beliefs, with, most likely, totally different senses…
Human beings have, for the most part, fairly limited senses,
animals like dogs and cats and lions have far better senses
than we do… and that fact alone, can impact our understanding
of the universe, and of course, our patterns of thought, especially
logic and reason… reason and logic cannot be divorced from our
senses or material world… we are bound by the laws of nature,
of physics of gravity and by being bound, our logic, our reasoning
is impacted…

All men are mortal
Socrates is a man,
therefore, Socrates is mortal…

this might be a logical sentence, but it is not necessarily, a true sentence…
and how might an alien species, that might be immortal, we can’t actually
know that, how might an alien species view this syllogism?

If all men are not mortal, what does that do, to the logic of the
sentence?

If logic is human based because of the human mind need to construct
logical propositions, then logic, as we understand it, is a local,
human idea… and that aliens might not, indeed, cannot hold to
this logic because being alien, they have a completely different
logic system, a completely different way to reason…
and it is possible, I would suspect more likely, that we two,
aliens and humans are unable to understand the logic,
reasoning of the other side… we are unable to bridge that
gap between alien logic/reasoning and human logic/reasoning…
simply because we are human and thus, we can only deduce
logic, reason in a certain way, and aliens, being aliens,
can only deduce logic and reasoning, a certain way…

will be able to understand their logic, their reasoning for doing things?

I don’t think so, but that is the question…
can we overcome our own human logic and reasoning to
understand another’s logic, reasoning?

Kropotkin

2

Let us look at another aspect of being human, ethics/morality…
What are the grounds for human ethics?
I would suggest that the ‘‘rules’’ for ethics/morals
are based on human being biological rules…
for example, the entire ethical/moral argument against
Incest for example, lie on the biological rules of breeding…
if human beings of too close genetic material, father, daughter
mate, the result would be damaged cells… thus, we can see by
the long time Hapsburg dynasty, the resulting incest cause severe
damage to the children being born… the late born Hapsburg children
were all physically damaged or even mentally damaged…
a biological event like incest creates damages to the human body…
thus, the moral imperative against incest…biological damage leads
us to the ethics/morality against that action of incest…

but let us return to aliens… What if, again because of biological
requirements, they must breed within clan… and their ethical,
moral standards might be against outside breeding… the exact
opposite of us… inside breeding leads us to biological damage,
whereas in aliens, outside breeding may lead to biological damage…
thus, there morality, their ethics is that, what we might call incest,
is not only appropriate, but is vital and necessary for aliens to succeed…
and their ethics, their morality highlights this fact… breeding outside of one’s
clan might be seen as being just as wrong for them, as incest is for us…
Morality, ethics can be seen as a reaction to the biological truths that
allow a species to survive…so, in some species, they must have sex
in water, like a pool or a lake, so their morality, ethics might be that
sex outside of water is morally wrong, ethically wrong…it becomes a sin…

that biological imperative creates the ethics, the morality a species lives by…
as it does for us… our ethical, moral propositions are a function of
our biological needs, desires and possibilities…

Kropotkin

3

I read your posts.
However, I don’t have much to add,
and I don’t have any criticism.

As far as morals, animals have them too.
Simpler stuff, but they have a code of conduct,
some of them.

Moral is just a fancy way of saying want and dislike.

4

Sometimes it seems that way.