Lord over logic

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

4 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

07/10/2009

Category :

Philosophy & literature

Sub category :

Humanities/philosophy

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Summary :

Introduction
The abstraction forces
The weak form of reductionism
The basic presupposition
The common theistic view of God
Clauser's biggest problem
Conclusion
Sources

Abstract

The seeming necessity of logical principles, such as the fundamental "law of non-contradiction", has led many thinkers to consider these principles primordial, basic, and uncreated. I can sympathize with the attitude that gives rise to this belief. In my own personal history of studying logic, I can remember my initial disbelief that it could be so profoundly "common sense", that it was so basic to the perception of reality I already had. Gradually this disbelief segued into a realization that much of my perception was based, for credibility, in an implicit assertion of the ideas that logic was making explicit. If I was experiencing the world as it was, then it seemed that everything in the world must inevitably bow to the "laws of logic". For a Christian, however, there seems to be a profound danger in respecting any laws as prior to and necessary for the existence of reality.

In my case, the logic curriculum that first acquainted me with the subject was from Veritas Press, a popular classical educational home schooling publisher-that also happens to be Catholic-suppressed any doubts about the fundamental nature of logic right out the gate. In the first chapter, I can still remember their claim, "God is logic." By an apparently simple identification of the "Logos" in John 1 with the "laws of logic" they added an exegetically unsound and philosophically troubling conclusion to my intellectual universe. I never bothered to question that conclusion again until I came up against Roy Clauser.