Sometimes I go to blogs and when I make a comment, I feel like a Junebug in a cabbage patch with a flock of crows sitting on neighboring rows of cornstalks. I've been met with so much admonition to use better logic that I decided to go look up that word and see how far I'd strayed from using any when I talk. Did you know that logic is "the science that investigates the principles governing correct or reliable inference"???
(I'm assuming, here, that there are some gurus out there who've tested this or that to come to those "correct and reliable inferences". Which may account for why we have so many cold medicines to unplug a nose. No one can agree on the principles governing such scientific deductions. I've used them all and none of them work for me. So how correct and reliable can they be? This isn't concrete. Just an analogy, which may or may not be logical when discussing one's inference on the relativity of language versus sudafed and benadryl.)
No wonder folks don't use much logic when they've got all that to remember, huh? Nevertheless, I press on:
"The science." Science is: a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study. Science is something (as a sport or technique) that may be studied or learned like systematized knowledge. Like having something down to a science. (Which is kinda like what my blogging friend has "logic" down to--a science.)
That's kinda like a waffle with all those little squares being filled up with this one and that one's understanding and pouring it into those little compartments like syrup before one eats it. A bunch of folk get together and "systematically" think through something else with all the knowledge each has in their brains about "that something else" and they study it. (Must be where my mom got such phrases as: "Let me study on it a bit" and "Well, I'll just have to let that wallow around in my brain a while.")
A fellow blogger informed me that: "Logic is simply rules about both language and the way we use it making sense. If we throw logic out the window whenever it fails to suit our purpose or argument then we have become postmodern relativists."
Every time this fellow talks to me I have to take all his words and lay 'em out on the table like I do like a jigsaw puzzle. Then one by one I have to put them all back together again and see what picture he's trying to produce. I'm pretty good with puzzles so I took a stab at it. His first statement about logic simply being rules that govern, is not as thorough as how the dictionary puts it. (Which is why I picked logic apart abit for you to get the drift of how it can play a role in how we chat with one another.)
"Relativists." I looked that up and instead of giving me a definition of a "relativist", the screen kept referring to the word relativism. It was as if there were no such animal as a "relativist". However, wanting to give my bloggin' friend the benefit of the doubt, I figured a "relativist" is simply someone who holds to relativism which is: "a theory that knowledge is relative to the limited nature of the mind and the conditions of knowing. They hold a view that ethical truths depend on the individuals and groups holding them".
Whew! I wallowed that one around a bit before I came up with my peabrain-teminology: A relativist is like someone with faith in Someone outside themselves. They see what Jesus said as reasonable enough to live by. Or they are someone who believes living like the devil is far more reasonable than a person who doesn't.
Postmodern means: "of, relating to, or being any of several movements (as in art, architecture, or literature) that are reactions against the philosophy and practices of modern movements and are typically marked by revival of traditional elements and techniques."
That's a bunch of stuff to figure out regarding the word "postmodern". Another jigsaw puzzle was necessary for that word alone.
"Postmodern." This one is bandied about a lot these days. Postmodern this, postmodern that. Basically I think it means if you believe like your parents did (as how Joseph did Jacob, and Jacob did Isaac, and Isaac did Abraham), and you wanna follow their mode of dealing with life, then you are a postmodern kinda person. Otherwise you are a reactionary and don't want to blend with the modern ways of doing stuff.
Well, after all that, your brain might be about as full as a blender with pistachios, pecans, walnuts and lemon juice. The nuttier the better to be able to swallow the lemon juice. But I've figure it all out and placed it in a teaspoon for myself. Makes it much easier to swallow. Here's the way I see logic and using logical weaponry against folks who are just simple folk who talk about how they see stuff and haven't had training in Logic 101 or 102:
Logic is a science of arranging words and points to make one's point to destroy another's point. It is man-made manipulation. And I'd rather have a teaspoonful of good old homespun common-sense, the wisdom of God and the spirit of discernment any day of the week than a ten-gallon jug of my fellow blogger's best Logic. (and that is not to say that my fellow blogger don't have some of the common-sense, wisdom of God and spirit of discernment. Just that most times what is imployed is logic instead of the other things I mention.) selahV
[DISCLAIMER: My momma use to say her brother didn't have sense enough to come out of the rain, and when I met up with someone like that, there is just no amount of words one can use to reason with them. I think she's right.] And that my dear readers who have inquiring minds about why I didn't answer my fellow blogger more fully in the other post, this is about "all I have to say" on logic. selahV] Wanna comment on a Logical Survey? Then click HERE.
[copyrighted, hariette petersen, 2007]
For years my husband collected crackle glass. Crackle glass is some of the most beautiful pieces of art-glass made. It's brilliance and sparkle come from the thousands of cracks throughout the piece. We have every color of the rainbow in our collection.
