Aristotle's Logic & Reasoning

As a musician with an interest in electronics my first encounter with logic was with analog computers.

However I've realised that the foundations of logic lie not with the early mathematicians, but with the ancient philosophers. Western logic originated in ancient Egypt and was further developed in Greece.There are Indian & Chinese schools of logic.

 

So what is logic?

It's a science that deals with rules & processes used in sound thinking and reasoning.

 It's often defined as "the study of techniques of valid inference". (wikipedia)

Inferences are steps in reasoning 

 

In ancient Greece there were many great thinkers such as Zeno, Paramenides, Socrates, and Plato.

They laid the foundation for Aristotle, who lived from 384 to 322BC.

There are actually two great systems of logic in the classical world.

Stoic and Aristotelian.

 

This page, covers Aristotelian logic.

 

Aristotelian logic, is a loose name for an approach to logic that began with Aristotle and was developed further in ancient history.

It's also known as Term Logic,  traditional logic & syllogistic logic.

His ideas developed the study of reasoning and argumentation.

(An argument consists of 2 parts:

Premises (what we presuppose) & the conclusion.

Aristotle was concerned with the breaking down of a proposition into its components.

 

Aristotle's logical work is collected in the six texts that are collectively known as the Organon. 

 

The basics concern these concepts:

1. The Term.

2. The proposition

3. The syllogism 

 

1.The term is a part of speech representing something. (eg a Man or a Musician).

2.Propositions are composed of two terms .

   A proposition is a sentence that signifies truth or falsehood.

   Eg: Don Buchla likes Electronics.

          Or

         Robert Moog is a Musician

       These are sentences that are true or false.

      Note that Commands or Questions can't be propositions because that can't be true ot false.

      eg: Build your module (this is a command)

     or

       have you finished the circuit design? (this is a question)

   Traditionally, there are 4 types propositions:

        a-type: Universal and affirmative ("All men are Greek")
        i-type: Particular and affirmative ("Some men are Greek")
        e-type: Universal and negative ("All men are not Greek")
        o-type: Particular and negative ("Some men are not Greek")

 

 3. Syllogism

     This is the final conclusion that is drawn from two given or assumed propositions.

eg:  1st Proposition (Major proposition) :All men are Musicians

        2nd proposition (Minor proposition): Don Buchla is a Man

        Syllogism (conclusion) : Therefore, Don Buchla is a Musician

This is an example of the a-type Universal / affirmative proposition.

This can be put in mathematical form:

  

All A is B

All C is A

All C is B

 

When you are debating, you have two ways to refute an argument.

Either 

1. Prove that one of the two propositions is false

                          Or

2.  Show that the conclusion doesn't logically follow from either Proposition

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Plato

Some notes about Plato

These are personal feeling about the great man.

Possibly, the greatest Philosopher who ever lived.

 

It's unusual to have a philosophy entry in this blog.
But I think this can impact you life and may even make your music better.

Plato is one of the greats

Are his ideas relevant today ? And could he help me make better music ?

 

Plato lived in ancient Greece and  belongs to its classical period. He was born into an aristocratic and influential family in Athens.

Along with his teacher Socrates and his student, Aristotle, Plato is possibly  one of the pillars of Western civilization. 

His biggest contribution is the theory of forms or doctrine of ideas.  

This asserts that the physical world is not the real world. He said that true reality exists beyond our physical world in the world of ideas.

His most famous books are the Republic, The symposium, and The apology of Socrates.

1. Get started
  “The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
   If you are suffering from writers block, just turn on your DAW, or the synth.
   Start something.
   Acknowledging the importance of beginning a task is important.

2. Conquer yourself.
    “For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.”
     Understand your strengths and weaknesses to take control of your destiny.
     Do not let your instincts and desires dictate your actions.
     If you want to loose weight, you need to understand your weakness, in order to
     overcome and achieve a positive outcome.

3. Hard Work
   Don't be lazy
    “I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident;
    they came by work.”
    Without struggle, there is no progress.

4. Being angry solves nothing
   A person should never be angry at what they can help and what they can not.
   Anger is a negative emotion, which we should avoid.
   Usese reason instead. Calmly evaluate a situation.

5.  Quality over quantity
     “Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.”
     Do a great EP or single, rather than a mediochre Album.

6. Surround yourself with positive people.
   "people like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person, or
   they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die".
   This also applies to the bigger question of choosing your life partner.
   "Each of us then is a matching half of a human whole. And each of us is always seeking the half that matches".
   Find your soul-mate.


7.  choose your words carefully
     “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.”

8. Be kind and generous.
   Offer your skills, advice, and service to others.

9. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
   “Life must be lived as play.”

10. Drop the ego.
   Realise, that you don't know everything.
   “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
   If you know nothing, you have everything to learn.
   So be willing to learn from others:
   "he who is not a good servant will not be a good master". 

 

 

11. Be wary of what others say about you , and what you tell the world about yourself.
   “Those who tell the stories rule society.”
   This is especially true today with social media.
   Influencers, will try to change your perception of the world. This can be positive or negative.
   What you tell the world about yourself is impt.
   The story you tell about your reality becomes your reality.
   Even if it's false, you might start to believe it.

12. Be content and grateful with what you have.
    "The greatest wealth is to live content(ly) with little".
    .... or to be happy with little.
    We need food, shelter, clothing. They are the essentials.
    I don't have to have a expensive car, or designer clothes to be happy.
    Don't be resentful of people with these expensive things.
    You don't really know if they are happier than you.
    They may have debt problems, marriage issues, drug dependency.
    We chase the material things in life, but these things will not make us any happier.
    Instead, the treadmill of "keeping up with the Jones" adds stress to your life.
    Buying a Jupiter 8, won't make my music significantly better, either.

 

Just remember,

Most of the stuff that you own, you don’t need. Happiness does not come from owning an array of possessions; it comes from within, from a deep sense of contentment with your life.

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Boethian Wheel Module - The Consolation of Philosophy

What does Greek Philosophy have in common with the Sex Pistols and modular synthesizers?
At first glance, not a lot..... but delving into the MetroModular Boethian Wheel module it's worth considering this and the "Wheel of Fortune & of Fate"

The module takes it's name from the Roman/Greek Philosopher, Boethius (c. AD 475-525) who lived under the rule of the Ostrogothic Emperor Theodoric. Though most people won't have heard of Boethius, it was through him that translations of Aristotle survived. This alone should be enough to cement his name in history, however he is mainly remembered for one book.

His life began full of luxury and prestige. Boethius held high public office, but his life suffered a sudden reversal of fortune. He was imprisoned for the crime of treason (which he didn't commit). While awaiting the trial he wrote this book: The Consolation of Philosophy.

The book explores how evil can exist in a world with God. We today, often ask ourselves how can bad things happen to good people if there is a God? Though this link to Christianity is implied in the book, no reference to Jesus or the Church is made. Boethius doesn't ask God why this bad luck has befallen him. Instead, the book is a conversation between himself and "Lady Philosophy". They discuss the fleeting nature of wealth and fame ("no man can ever truly be secure until he has been forsaken by Fortune").

She teaches that happiness comes from within, and that virtue is all that one truly has.
On human nature, Boethius says that humans are essentially good and only when they give in to “wickedness” do they “sink to the level of being an animal.”

It's a really interesting book, written by a Christian who was also a Platonist. His morality and ethics lie within the Greek/Stoic tradition. I think this may be one of the very first "self help" books... and the fact that it was written in one year (AD 523) by a man in prison makes it all the more compelling a read.

And so what do the sex pistols have to do with Boethius?
The Sex Pistols , Joy Division, New Order , etc appear in the  2002 movie
"24 Hr People"

It's basically about Factory Records.
There is a famous quote about the Wheel of Fortune from the movie:


Dr Who ;-)
Christopher Eccleston

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Philosophy

 Philosophy is the study of  fundamental questions about the world...., such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, the mind, AI vs natural intelligence, soul, life after death, etc etc.

You might think its odd to find this page in a blog about synths, but I think  such concepts will actually help make better music.

 

If I suffer writer's block , or life seems too much to turn that synthesizer on, then reading a bit of Aristotle or Marcus Aurelius helps refocus on whats important. Usually I can get going again.

 

 This page will be constantly edited and added to over the years.

The study of Philosophy is a lifetime endeavour.

+ Plato

+ Boethius

+ Marcus Aurelius - Stoic wisdom

+ Aristotle's Logic & Reasoning  

+ Stoic Logic - basic intro

+ Thales - the Father of Science

Stoic Logic - basic intro

 

There are actually two systems of logic in the classical world.

Stoic and Aristotelian.

 

This page covers some basic ideas of Stoic logic. 

Stoic L is also sometimes called Propositional Logic.

 

Stoic Logic was first developed by Chrysippus, in the 3rd-century BC.

It's teachings were "lost" for many centuries and only rediscovered in the 20th century .

The first person to reappraise their ideas was the Polish logician Jan Łukasiewicz.

 

There appear to be close similarities between the methods of Stoic reasoning and the behaviour of digital computers. ... The code of the nineteeth-century logician and mathematician George Boole bear much in common with Chrysippus. Propositional logic is thus closely related to modern mathematical & Boolean logic.

 

Stoic logic is different from Aristotle's term logic because it was based on the analysis of propositions rather than terms.

 

Aristotelian logic uses terms like all Xs are Ys, some Xs are Ys, and no Xs are Ys

A example is: All men are mortal. Dion is a man.

A conclusion is reached by rules known as Syllogisms.

eg: Therefore, Dion is a mortal.. 

 

Propositional logic uses Propositions. (statements that are either true or false)

It also uses operators ( logical connectives) like the Conditional, Paraconditional, Conjunction, and Disjunction, etc

An example: 

If X then Y; 

Both X and Y; 

Either X or Y. 

These propositions and operators can be combined to create more advanced statements too, like: If A and B, and C or D, then it is not the case that E.

 

So to summarise:

Stoic Logic a system of deduction which uses 2 parts:

1. propositions (statements that are either true or false)

2. operators or logical connectives (which act upon the propositions). 

 

Stoic logic starts with simple propositions. A favorite examples from the ancient texts:

• Dion is walking.

 We can turn this into a complex proposition by using an "operator".

These are really similar to boolean operators

Boolean Operators are simple words (AND, OR, NOT or AND NOT) used as conjunctions to combine or exclude keywords in a search

 

Stoic  propositions "operators" use terms like:

 

    Conditional (if) :                                        If it is day, it is light.
    Paraconditional/Pseudoconditional (since): Since it is day, it is light.
    Conjunction (and) :                                    Both it is day and it is night.
    Disjunction (either ... or) :                          Either it is day or it is night.
    Causal (because) :                                     Because it is day, it is light.

    Comparative (more/less likely .... than  :     more likely it is day than night     

    The more: It is more day than it is night.
    The less: It is less night than it is day.
 

 

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