What is Logical?

2006-1-3 02:15:00

Larry:

"Truth is always logical"?

So JJ, what is your definition of "logical"?

What are the conditions of being "logical" that truth must meet?

Truth does not have to meet any conditions for truth just is, or we could say what IS, is that which is true. That which is logical leads to what IS, or the truth. The truth is merely the ultimate test of sound logic.

There is a story, still in circulation, that engineers have calculated that a bumblebee cannot fly, yet we know it does fly. This story was said to have started in the 1930's in Germany when a biologist challenged a prominent aerodynamicist to prove that a bumblebee can fly, given its wingspan, wing beats per second, lift etc. After some calculations the engineer was beside himself and said "looks like the bumblebee can't fly."

After this story got some circulation other scientists went back to the drawing board on logic and put two and two together. Obviously the bumble bee does fly and it would do so by natural law. This tells us that the aerodynamicist made a mistake or was missing some data. Let's find it. They looked into it and found that indeed the bumblebee was not defying the laws of nature. After doing some research and getting some more accurate data about how bee wings actually create lift it was finally proven that bees logically can indeed fly.

What happened here? Logic first led the scientists to the truth that the aerodynamicist had made a mistake. Secondly, it led them to do some research to fine tune the calculations so they finally harmonized with the truth or what IS, and what IS, is the truth that bumblebees can fly.

What IS, or the truth, revealed a flaw in the logic that aerodynamically bees cannot fly. The observed truth that they can fly revealed the bad logic in the story that circulates that bees are defying natural law.

It's still a good story to use though to illustrate that when someone tells you that you can't do something they are often wrong.

To answer your question I would say that, that which is logical is that thinking or reasoning process that moves a person in the direction of a true conclusion with the intent of finding the truth.

My dictionary defines it as "characterized by clear reasoning." I have no problem with this.

In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra. Fran Lebowitz (1950 - )