Study Notes (Logic) - (6/5/18-6/10/18)

Here's my first set of Logic notes.  In case anyone is interested, I'm constantly fine-tuning how I go about my studies in order to maximize understanding and retention.  My current process is:

1. Read for five minutes
2. Handwritten notes for what I can actively recall from memory.
3. Repeat 1 & 2 for a thirty-minute study session (I'll normally only have two five minute segments for a full ten minutes of  newly read material before going back and re-reading/reviewing from where I started reading on a given day for the remainder of the full thirty minute session; the handwritten notes can take a good chunk of time).
4.  Review notes at the end of the day.
5. The following morning review notes again and type them into a document 
6. Review of the pages covered in the source material in order to add anything I missed that seems important.

I might have a different study system in the next week. All depends on what I think is working best for me.  This is an extremely taxing subject, but I believe that suffering is worth it in the end to stretch my mind well beyond where it currently is.

Do take my notes with a grain of salt.  I very much doubt that I'll get it all the first time around.  So, don't take it to be the Truth.  And feel free to comment suggestions and/or corrections. 😊

I -- Socratic Logic - concepts, judgements, and arguments are represented in a logical argument as 1) terms(concepts), 2) propositions (judgements), 3) argument, which is commonly given in the form of a syllogism (e.g. “All men are mortal. I am a man.  Therefore I am mortal).

Logic unlike language isn’t artificial.  It’s discovered. It’s a natural property of the universe such as mathematics.

Terms are simple: Man is a concept based off of abstraction.  Propositions such as “All men are mortal” are judgements made concerning abstracted aspects of “man.” Propositions will contain a subject (man) and a predicate (are mortal) that is then subjected to the argument which draws a  conclusion from the terms and propositions: If men are mortal, and I am a man; then I must be mortal.

An argument is theoretically composed of two premises (both containing a subject and predicate) and a conclusion (containing a subject, predicate, and the truth statement that is extracted from the comparison of the two.

Terms are either clear/unclear.  Propositions are either True/False.  And Conclusions are either valid/invalid.  

Terms are concerning with what a thing is.  Propositions with the existence of a thing as it is.  And Arguments with cause/why a thing is as it is.  An arguments takes the propositions built off of terms in order to conclude whether a valid conclusion about why something is as it is can be made.

A true, valid conclusion can only be reached with clear, unambiguous terms, True premises, and valid logical conclusions/arguments.  If any of these three parts is compromised the logic is ambiguous and inconclusive.

II -- Logic (32-37) - How to define Truth:  to paraphrase Aristotle, what one says exists and it does exists is Truth.  What one says exists and doesn’t exist is not Truth. Truth can be a tricky concept since the definition can be concrete, but the methods by which we observe and gather facts for Truth can be faulty and led people into existential crises about the subjective, rather than objective, nature of reality.

Three questions to continually ask when hearing someone else’s argument:  1) What do you mean? (define terms properly), 2) What’s the point? (what is being proved/what’s your conclusion?), 3) Why? (defend why you’re correct).

To make your own case you must 1) have clear and unambiguous terms, 2) true premises, and 3) valid logic in order to come to a true conclusion.

Funny story: Aristotle had described in a lecture the three levels of intelligence: 1) gods, 2) men, 3) brutes.  He said that the gods know too much to ask questions while the brutes knew too little to ask questions. So, when his students had no questions afterwards he asked if he should be proud they’d risen to the level of gods through his lecture or if he should lament that they’d fallen to the level of brute through his lecture.

The ability to question is part of what truly separates us from animals and computers.  Computers never question. They only do with the data we give them what we have already programmed them to do.  There’s nothing intelligent and conscious about them.

Animals can show some degree of problem-solving (e.g. gorillas stacking crates to escape an enclosure or animals learning certain behaviors hoping it will lead to treats), but they still don’t have a quantifiable ability to abstract.  Though there is some interesting research into animal “intelligence.” But the differences in degree and quality between humans and animals is an unbridgeable gap currently.

Concepts (the essence and nature of things) defies the laws of nature.  They are not reliant on space and time. A man can think of two cities that are thousands of miles apart at the same time to compare them.  His concept of the cities bridges the gap created by time and space. I know; not the strongest argument. But I hope to revisit the thought.

Question: for concepts being able to defy/transcend time and space, did the concept of a house exist before the first house was built?  

Concepts are dependent on our minds.  But the objects that our minds understand (simple apprehension) are independent of our minds.

III -- Logic - Concepts are 1) Spiritual/immaterial, 2) Abstract, 3) Universal, 4) Necessary, and 5) Unchanging/Immutable

1. Spiritual means that concepts are without physical properties.  They have no weight, color, size, energy, etc. A thought (as is different from a “concept”) can potentially be considered to have a physical element through its processing in the brain and the resulting phantasm that results in the symbolic communication of the immaterial concept that started the process.
2. Abstract means that the concept has been mentally separated from the perceived object.  Consider a red rose, you can abstract the color red from it and perceive that the color is able to exist in objects other than the singular red rose.  You even go so far as to imagine potential/unreal objects with the abstracted quality of red imposed upon it (e.g. a rose red cat. At least to my knowledge they do not naturally exist, but it can exist in the mind after I’ve abstracted the color rose red and imposed it onto the phantasm of cat in my mind).  You cannot physically separate the color from a flower, but you’re able to separate color from flower through your intellect.

3. Universal means that the concept applies to all things with that essence at all time.  The different kinds of trees, despite how technically different they may appear, still have the same “essence” of tree that we’ve abstracted to label them all trees. Fun excerpt from Orthodoxy by Gilbert K. Chesterton :  

“Then there is the opposite attack on thought: that urged by Mr. H.G.Wells when he insists that every separate thing is ‘unique,’ and there are no categories at all. This also is merely destructive. Thinking means connecting things, and stops if they cannot be connected. It need hardly be said that this scepticism forbidding thought necessarily forbids speech; a man cannot open his mouth without contradicting it. Thus when Mr. Wells says (as he did somewhere), ‘All chairs are quite different,’ he utters not merely a misstatement, but a contradiction in terms. If all chairs were quite different, you could not call them ‘all chairs.’”

IV -- Logic - continuing the Five elements of a concept:

1. Spiritual/immaterial (i.e. a concept has some weight, height, depth, taste, etc.)
2. Abstract (i.e. formed by the intellect from observation)
3. Universal (i.e. the concept applies to all things, at all places [e.g. the concept tree applies to all trees everywhere at once; not just the current tree being perceived])
4. Necessary (i.e. the concept must contain within it the abstractions that are intrinsic to the entity's existence [e.g. a triangle only exists with three sides and a sum of 180 degrees]) Concepts such as trees are a harder to pin down due to so many variables, but without being able to write down a concrete, defined list I can still understand what the concept tree applies to and infers.
5. Unchanging (i.e. what a concept applies to can change materially [e.g. two bunnies + two bunnies might = more than four bunnies eventually], but the concept will always remain the same [e.g. 2 + 2 = 4])

Metaphysics is the study of being.  Being is intrinsic to everything else.  Without being there can be nothing else.  

The nature of being is intrinsic to Logic.  By creating the conception of a house you have implied that house has being in addition to the form, substance, etc.  “The House is blue” has the implicit understanding that the House is.

Concepts are private and wholly within the mind of the individual’s intellect.  Terms are an extrinsic extension of concepts for social utilization that are communicated via words (the material means of communicating [e.g. speaking, written symbols])  Terms can be expressed by differents words in different words in different languages.

Propositions are made of terms:  An apple is a fruit. The terms “apple” and “fruit” are used.  Terms can only be clear/unclear (aka ambiguous/unambiguous) while propositions are either True or False.  

1. Concepts to 2) judgments to 3) arguments

1. Terms to b) propositions to 3) syllogisms.
2. 
   

V -- Logic (42-44) - Does beauty literally exist or just beautiful things (i.e. the immaterial concept itself or just a physical manifestation)?  Plato believed in what is coined “Extreme Realism” (i.e. there is a physical world and an equally real spiritual world populated by immaterial things).  

William Ockham was a founder of Nominalism in opposition to such ideas as “Extreme Realism” by stating that concepts do not exist but that humans create names that are imperfect shorthand to classify individuals that are imprecisely lumped together by the subjective human intellect (i.e. “All chairs are quite different.”)  

Personal Note:  it seems to me that Nominalism has a fundamental error in giving the individual matter of a given object far more importance compared to the abstracted essence that can be apprehended by the human intellect.

Aristotle took a middle ground by proclaiming that concepts do exist in and because of the intellect (they don’t have an existence outside the intellect).  Some theorize that if concepts did exist outside the intellect that this would lead to the valuing of concepts above the existing individuals identified by the concepts.  

Personal note:  I imagine that believing concepts exist outside the intellect does have a danger in belittling the importance of the individual.  But to have intellect (which exists independently in all individuals) be the origin and home of concepts gives equal importance to each individual instead of allowing the individuals who defy certain concepts to be devalued for not conforming to the ideal that exists outside the person.

Concepts must have a universality to them that extends to a class that encompasses more than merely the current and presently perceived being to avoid the danger of having everything be of subjective importance to the whims of each individual’s apprehension.  

Having concepts that extend to a group of like individuals that includes more than the single being that is perceived at any given moment is the only way to adequately categorize and understand the world.  

Terms have extension (e.g. “Man” extends to either all 7+ billion people or to a single individual man depending on context) and comprehension (e.g. “Man” is comprehended as a “rational animal”).  

Extension is a quantitative with how it can measure the connection/reference a term has with the physical/real world (e.g. you measure how many people “Man” extends to).  Comprehension is qualitative since it cannot be measured (e.g. the nature/aspect “rational animal” as a comprehension of “Man” cannot be measured; only abstracted and understood).  

Divisions and outlines measure a term’s extension.  The definition of a term analyzes its comprehension.  

Study Notes (Trivium) - (6/5/18-6/10/18)

Greetings.  Felt I should try to add some content; even if it is quite sub-par quality.  The following is my personal notes taken while studying the The Trivium this past week.  To explain a little, it's not prettied up and organized in this post.  These are the notes as they appear in my personal notes.  I've attempted active recall (writing from memory after reading) with these notes as well as I can, but I'm certainly far from perfect.  Everything in red is stuff that corrected or added after going back to the back after getting down what I could.

My intent is four fold:

1. I'm hoping to give myself a mental push by publishing these notes.  It should force me to think more about the concepts and issues to make them better articulated and succinct if I know others will be reading.
2. I hope to encourage anyone interested in studying this stuff but that may be discouraged by the difficulty of the subject matter.  I have a LOT of red on some days. But I persevere.
3. I hope to quite simply communicate information that I find important and interesting.  If someone can happen upon this blog and find what's contained interesting enough to take it up himself, that's a pretty cool positive for me.
4. Two+ heads are better than one.  Having others weigh in on these notes will hopefully lead to some fruitful discussions and even deeper thinking and understanding of the material. 
5. If others of more sufficient understanding of these things happen to find this blog, then I'm always happy to accept input in the hopes that I can gain a better understanding of it all.

Quick note:  these notes start on page 20 of the book.  Perhaps one day I'll go back and digitize my handwritten notes from the earlier pages.

Here are the notes (the Roman Numerals separate the different days):

I -- Trivium - words without meaning aren’t symbols.  Words must correspond with some reality or a concept/abstraction of reality to be a symbol.

The senses work with the brain in order to perceive and abstract from the world.  The senses initially work to achieve percept through the stimulation of the senses.  Then the imagination works to achieve a phantasm so that the mind can recall a sense of the object/idea without the object needing be present.  

Concept is the abstraction of the essence of phantasms.  You see multiple chairs and the phantasms that arise in your mind provide the material from which the intellect can abstract the concept of chair from the individual examples.

The imagination is the meeting point between the intellect and the senses; think dreams being how the intellect might attempt to bridge a gap with reality and new information through strange, imaginative exercises.

Review:  four ways to symbolize - A) two ways to symbol aggregate and individual: 1) proper name, 2) empirical description; B) two ways to symbolize essense: 1) general/empirical description, 2) common name.

Man is the only creature with true power of abstraction; some animals may contain some low-level ability to abstract, but it is of limited use and related wholly to survival/instinct.  It does not appear to be of intellectual use to them.

II -- Trivium - Generalized concepts are abstractions of the essence of particular class.  The concepts exist regardless of time, location, etc as opposed to the percept and phantasms of objects.  Percepts exist within the external senses and depend upon external stimulus to manifest. Phantasms are dependent upon an individual’s imagination and intellect to manifest at a particular time and place.

General concepts have their basis in normative reality.  To put it another way, concepts have a basis in what is real; not in the subjective interpretation one might have for reality.

Everything within the intellect (with the exception of the intellect itself) depends upon outside data produced by the external senses.

Man is the only animal with the rational capacity of abstraction.  Other animals can have the capacity to respond to external stimulus (shapes, colors, etc), but Man is the only creature that can abstract and create concepts (essense of a square, formula for the circumference of a circle.

Sister Miriam gives the analogy of a bee making honey.  Many different insects may rest upon and interact with a flower, but only the bee has the capacity to interact with the flower so as to produce honey.  In a similar fashion, Man has a unique relationship with the world by having the capacity to abstract concepts from raw sense data that both Man and animal can perceive.

If animals could abstract, you would expect to have change and perhaps some form of culture evolve in them.  But they remain static in their instincts and capabilities in so far as we can theorize.

St. Thomas More made a defense of the Church’s use of statues and images by saying in essence statues/images and written text are fundamentally the same.  They’re all symbols (imitation and written) that communicate the phantasmical thoughts of the author to the viewer at a later point. At a technical level it is quite true.  We see the words same as we might a painting. The only difference I can think of is that the words have a more concrete an objective interpretation set upon them than the potential ideas any individual may receive from looking at a painting.

Interesting thought:  a painting that depicts an event from a book that is constructed by repeating the text from the particular book scene over and over and changing the coloring of the letter to create the image.  

According to More images and statues are of great benefit to the unlearned and ignorant who may not have the capacity or learning to benefit from the written word

III -- Trivium - Thomas More defends the use of statues and icons by explaining how they are symbols the same as words in that they help to communicate the phantasms and concepts in the author’s mind to the recipient.  

10 categories of being:

1. Substance- that of something which is in itself (man)
2. Quantity- determination of matter of a substance (tall man)
3. Quality- determination of the nature of something (friendly, handsome man)
4. Relation- something in relation to others (man is near)
5. Action- matter doing something either for itself or to something else (smile, type on a keyboard)
6. Passion - matter acted upon by something else (being drafted)
7. When- quality of something in relation to extrinsic events with relation to time (man on a Sunday morning)
8. Where- quality of something in relation to extrinsic objects/places (near a lake)
9. Posture- the matter of something in relation to itself (sitting down changes how the parts of matter relate to itself)
10. Habiliment- clothing and decoration of a person.

Substance seems to be distinct from essence.  Essence is a concept taken from multiple phantasms/percepts of a thing while substance is that which is the sum total that makes something what it is in itself.  And the categories relate to substance how a thing relates to itself and others.  

IV -- Trivium - The Ten Categories of Being:

1. Substance - that which exists in and of itself in the subject. (e.g. the person)
2. Quantity - that which exists in relation to determination of the matter of the subject (e.g. height, weight)
3. Quality - quality  determination of the nature of something (e.g. intelligence)
4. Relation - the reference a substance (individual) or accident bears to another (e.g. friend)
5. Action - the exercise of the faculties or power of a substance either upon something else or itself to produce a result (e.g. typing notes, smiling)
6. Passion - something extrinsic to the subject that has its terminus in the subject reception by a substance (i.e. the subject) of an effect by an external agent (e.g. getting slapped)
7. When - something extrinsic in relation to duration position in relation to extrinsic events which measure duration. (e.g. Sunday afternoon)
8. Where - something extrinsic in relation to position of a substance in relation to other (i.e. extrinsic) bodies in order to measure and determine the substance’s place (e.g. by the lake, next to the clock tower, on the bench)
9. Posture - matter in relation to itself the relative positions of the matter of a substance to itself (e.g. sitting down)
10. Habiliment - what the subject wears. (e.g. clothing, jewelry, helmet)

Predicates can organize the Ten Categories of Being in to three blocks according to what the say about the subject:

1. If the predicate is the subject itself and

V -- Trivium- Predicates can subcategorize the Ten Categories of Being in three ways:

1. The predicate is the subject.
2. The predicate exists within the subject
3. The predicate exists outside the subject

Seven important definitions with consideration to language and reality:

1. Essence is that which makes a being what it is and without which it would be what it is. (e.g. I am Man.  Man is my essence differentiates me from other beings made of similar matter)
2. Nature is essence viewed as a source of activity.
3. The individual is constituted of of essence in quantified matter.  While I’m part of the greater class of man by my essence, I’m still differentiated by having my own individual material existence and accidents to set me apart.  Even matches, while manufactured to meet exacting standards, are still individual matches due to their quantifiable difference in having individual material existence apart from the other matches.  
4. Percept is the simple apprehension sense-apprehension of an object that is present.
5. A Phantasm is the image from memory in the mind in the absence of the object; mental image of an individual reality
6. General Concept is the basic understanding intellectual apprehension of essence.

An Empirical Concept is the intellectual apprehension of an individual.  The intellect can only indirectly know individual objects, the objects being material.  But the intellect can directly know itself.

I love how day IV just ends so abruptly.  That was a particularly taxing day.

I'll try to get out my Logic notes from the same time period later today.