Hello, and recommendations for logic/argument

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robb
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Hello, and recommendations for logic/argument

Post by robb »

Hello beautiful people,

My name's Robbie. I am from Singapore (South East Asia). I am a musician by training. I've (since I've came to know of it's existence as a subject) had a fascination with philosophy but never felt very comfortable with the material. I've tried reading some Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Russell, Nietzsche, and Kafka. But most times, I think I understand less than 20% of what is said. To me, Russell is perhaps the easiest to understand.

I've had the good fortunate (at least I feel so) to have had gone through most of my higher education in the United States which definitely allowed me to explore a more ideological way of thinking. As opposed to a pragmatic one. Neither is better. It's just nice to be exposed to different ways.

I'd like to ask if any of you can give me some pointers or recommendation on how I may improve in the area of logic and argument. I would like to be able to identify flawed reasoning and fallacy. To explain why a certain argument is valid and vice versa. I am not especially bright so something not too difficult would be ideal =D . Books, videos, or even online courses could be possible mediums. Because I usually benefit from quite a bit of repetition and practice, I've wondered if there are workbooks or affordable online courses on this topic. I'm not even sure of the name of this topic but I have a hunch that this is taught in some schools.

Anyway, I am glad to be here. And I hope to be able to take part in the discussions here. There is no doubt I will learn a lot from you but hopefully I'll be able to contribute in some form as well.

Best,
Robbie
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Jack D Ripper
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Re: Hello, and recommendations for logic/argument

Post by Jack D Ripper »

One of the standard textbooks for logic is Introduction to Logic by Irving M. Copi. It is a good general introduction, with a very nice section introducing symbolic logic.

If you are reading on your own, you may want to buy an old used copy of an old edition, as one can get them for next to nothing, whereas the latest edition is expensive. And the basic ideas are the same, though the newer editions have more material than the first edition.

However, I am not sure that that is quite what you want; if you are wanting informal logic, something like Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric by Howard Kahane might be better. But it does not cover symbolic logic and some other things Copi covers, so it really depends on exactly what interests you.

In both cases, used, old editions could be had very cheaply.

Since you are thinking about reading on your own, you might want more than one book, to give you different perspectives and different explanations and examples. So you might want to buy both of the above books.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence." - David Hume
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Empiricist-Bruno
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Re: Hello, and recommendations for logic/argument

Post by Empiricist-Bruno »

Hie Robbie,

Welcome to the Forum.

I do like what it is that you are interested in because it resonates with me but perhaps not in the way you might have intended.

My powers of identifying fallacy or illogical concepts increased significantly after writing a philosophical book because the subject was difficult and required deep thinking over an extended period of time and it covered an extensive topic, technology. You might want to consider doing a similar project.

After writing the book, some of my old illogical thinking began to haunt me and jump at me. Some of that had been deeply ingrained and so life changes had to be made to face down these untruths in me.

In my opinion, Nietzsche was a Nazy nurturer and I think it's great you can't figure him out easily. :) Sometimes, trying to figure others or other's thinking isn't worth the effort.
Watch out for the hidden paradoxes around you!
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ibjulie
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Re: Hello, and recommendations for logic/argument

Post by ibjulie »

Hi, my name's Julie. I've been searching for a group that I can have interesting, deep conversations with. My man died last year and the aspect I miss most (among other things of course) is conversation. We used to sit around every night musing about the nature of being, life, death, after life, consciousness, enlightenment, that sort of thing. My 3 kelpies just don't appear to be stepping up from doggie hood and coming to the conversational party. I felt sure it was easy to find groups that I could just converse with online but when I typed in conversation I basically just got dating sites. Not that I won't be interested in that sort of stuff in the future but it's just that I miss conversation more and I definitely won't be going back to dating sites as after my 2nd husband died 7 years ago I went on some of these sites and it was fairly traumatic, really draining and so time consuming. I'm a fairly up front honest person who wants the same in who I'm conversing with and those sites just produced superficiality and lies; and not a lot of meaningful conversation. I think the thing I'm interested in most on this forum (apart from the need to save the world) is consciousness. What it is, where it is, what it entails, is there only one? I'm a theatre Nurse and I often ask unsuspecting new registrars "how can you say that you render a patient unconscious when no one knows what consciousness is?" Cheers
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LuckyR
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Re: Hello, and recommendations for logic/argument

Post by LuckyR »

ibjulie wrote: March 22nd, 2021, 4:30 am Hi, my name's Julie. I've been searching for a group that I can have interesting, deep conversations with. My man died last year and the aspect I miss most (among other things of course) is conversation. We used to sit around every night musing about the nature of being, life, death, after life, consciousness, enlightenment, that sort of thing. My 3 kelpies just don't appear to be stepping up from doggie hood and coming to the conversational party. I felt sure it was easy to find groups that I could just converse with online but when I typed in conversation I basically just got dating sites. Not that I won't be interested in that sort of stuff in the future but it's just that I miss conversation more and I definitely won't be going back to dating sites as after my 2nd husband died 7 years ago I went on some of these sites and it was fairly traumatic, really draining and so time consuming. I'm a fairly up front honest person who wants the same in who I'm conversing with and those sites just produced superficiality and lies; and not a lot of meaningful conversation. I think the thing I'm interested in most on this forum (apart from the need to save the world) is consciousness. What it is, where it is, what it entails, is there only one? I'm a theatre Nurse and I often ask unsuspecting new registrars "how can you say that you render a patient unconscious when no one knows what consciousness is?" Cheers
If I understand you correctly, you work in the Operating room (theatre). A noble profession, congrats. Sorry to hear about your loss.

Yes, the philosophical and the anesthesia definitions of consciousness are generally not identical.

I look forward to another scientific/medical perspective in the threads.
"As usual... it depends."
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