How did the early philosophers use logic to determine the origins of our existence, proof of the existence of God and an understanding of the reality around them?
What methods did they use? And were they reliable?
I can’t help but think about this!
Help me think!
‘logic’ as we conceive of it today as a philosophical discipline…was markedly different from ancient conceptions of it.
Philosophers like PLotinus, Aristotle, Plato and Pythagoras…key forces in ancient philosophy simply didnt base their philosophies within what we conceive of as ‘logical’ frameworks…
Everything has a beginning. So has philosophy. I think you musn’t underestimate early man. There is even a high probablity that they were as intelligent as us. And nowadays we still read the works spoken and written thousands of years ago. And somewhere there, man came up with the concept of logic. But that doesn’t imply, that they didn’t used it before.
Is this getting you somewhere, blazzinkeys?
what gavtmcc is saying is that all of the symbolic logic and all of the rules that have been extrapolated and are now in textbooks didn’t exist in such an organized form back then as they do today. confucius’ contemporary “mo zi” developed ideas about the conditions for determining valid conclusions. aristotle’s “organon” was also a good inspiration for contemporary logic. read plato’s “meno” and you’ll find examples of deductive reasoning. and sure, i wouldn’t doubt if it was used even further back in time than any of these three examples. but open up a logic textbook and you will see exactly what gavt is talking about.
their contributions are in no doubt important in the sense that without them, who would’ve known to what degree we have advanced now in the field of philosophy. They set the ground for not only the science of logic but for many related disciplines.
Yes on second thought, we could’ve also came to their conclusions and discovery without their help, ( and this is not to underestimate man)
But isn’t it nice to know that some questions had at least been tried with a process in the past already? It’s more convenient for us, I think.
Yes it does make it hard to be original, but everyone has the potential. 
yeah right, what i just posted as a reply never answered the questions.
should’ve not overlooked the whole query. Dumb me, admittedly.
apologies…
The early philosophers thought: The laws of mathematics are the laws of the world. The laws of mathematics are harmonious, so the whole cosmos must be harmonious. -
Maybe this will help …
Asctually Klingsor that is a massive over simplification. the ‘laws of the world’? they had no such laws…for them mathematics led to perfection…it was perfection…
but several philosophers were NOT at all interested in mathematics…take for instance neo-Pythagoreans and the likes of Augustine and Origen.
whats youve said is an inaccurate generalisation
.