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To: RightWhale
It's what we do, we are men, women, learners, gatherers.

It seems to be what separates us from other animals, doesn't it?

Remember the old ditty:

Fish gotta swim;
Bird gotta fly;
Man gotta sit,
and ask himself "why, why, why."

Logic and reason is one of the ways we ask why, applicable only to those things that can be answered, "because…"

In other words, it applies only to causal, conditional knowing. But, man has never limited himself to this, and long ago found that, in a true learning quest, logic becomes a long string of becauses, ending only with something taken as a given, an axiom, or "self-evident." I.e. something not known using the tool of logic (less we wish to add another because, another link in an endless chain and face the same logical wall a step further away.)

Here we see the limit of logic as a tool, not to be confused with "our limit of our ability ot learn, to gather…"

Once we have that axiom, that non-proven self-evident beginning, logic is a marvelous tool for so much more knowing and acting. But to act at all, we must start with something logic cannot be used to teach us.

Thanks for your reply.

322 posted on 05/24/2003 10:07:16 PM PDT by D-fendr
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To: D-fendr
It seems to be what separates us from other animals, doesn't it?

Animals can do simple logic processing, unlike democratic voters. My dog processes an iff clause every time I tell him to heel.

327 posted on 05/24/2003 10:44:29 PM PDT by donh (/)
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