Logic vs Common sense.. .

[GarcherLancelot]

I read on internet that suggests that logic is like EVERYTHING.. .and common.. .sense.. .is not reliable,but as I experience in my life that is usually not the case because our scope of logic is limited only to our own viewpoints while common sense.. . is.. .like the collective mutual subconscious agreement among human being about what is plausible and what is not.. .I admit that common sense alone is not exactly good.. .(there is a lot of things that are not agreeable.. . by a significant number of.. .population for example which religion is real.. .),logic by it's own is not exactly the best because we are only trapped by our.. .own.. .scope of the situation.. .Thoughts?.. .

[Astus]

Logic is about correct reasoning and not about deciding what is true or false, good or bad.

[shel]

"Correct reasoning" sounds a little dangerous to me. Rather, logic is reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity.

[Karma Dondrup Tashi]

http://books.google.com/books?id=MPSL-A ... &q&f=false

Tough going - good luck!

[GarcherLancelot]

.. .
so what if there is no strict.. .principles of validity that is known?.. .

[Kim O'Hara]

.. .
so what if there is no strict.. .principles of validity that is known?.. .

Logic has a set of rules to play by, like maths or chess - even better, like a computer programme.
If you apply those rules carefully to true statements, you can come up with new statements which are pretty well guaranteed to be true.
If you apply then to false statements or apply them wrongly, you will come up with new statements which are false. The old GIGO rule always holds true: Garbage In, Garbage Out.

Commonsense is, as you almost say, accumulated knowledge which has been internalised because it generally works well. But it is specific to each community in both time and space. To us now, it is common sense that germs cause disease; to our great-great grandparents is was a novel idea, and to New Guinea tribesmen is is crazy - everyone knows malign spirits cause disease.

Both logic and commonsense are useful. Use them wisely!


Kim

[KeithBC]

.. .
so what if there is no strict.. .principles of validity that is known?.. .

That's a bit like saying "what if 1+1 was not equal to 2?" Well, it is. The principles of logic are equally well-defined.

The flaw with common sense is that it often ignores this fact.

Om mani padme hum
Keith

[plwk]

everyone knows malign spirits cause disease...

But but but didn't you know that nagas causes sicknesses?
That the particular spirit caused the mad cow disease back then?
That it could harm the lives of teachers?
Isn't it plain logical to you?
The joy of reading from certain E-Sangha posters...

[jeeprs]

There are things which surpass reason - as Buddhism well knows - but in human affairs it is far more often the case that we fall short of it.

[GarcherLancelot]

WHat.. . I mean is what if there is not strict and valid way to understand a certain issue that is known to that person?.. .

[shel]

There are things which surpass reason - as Buddhism well knows - but in human affairs it is far more often the case that we fall short of it.

This is not true for the simple reason that all "things" have a purpose and all purposes are limited.