Wednesday, May 5, 2021

The Heightened Philosophical Importance Of Strictly Logical Truths

There is something particular to be considered about reasoning things out on one's own, or at least without constant prompting from other people or specific experiences.  Since logical truths underpin all other kinds of truths and are thus more important than all other truths, and since purely logical truths are more directly knowable than any other category of facts due to immediate accessibility through reflection and absolute certainty, the logical truths that all people can at least hypothetically access are the most vital facts in all of philosophy.  This is not because being able to know something completely on one's own automatically makes a truth especially important, but because the most foundational truths are by nature accessible by looking to reason and reflection alone.

If it is not at least logically possible for an unaided person to discover a given truth or concept on their own, even if it requires a large amount of time and immense willpower, intelligence, or curiosity, then that concept is not utterly foundational to epistemology and metaphysics or it is merely a social construct with no ultimate significance.  It might be of great subjective interest to some people, and it might also be philosophically important, perhaps even to the point that it is worth reflecting on and discussing simply because it has overtly impacted society; none of this means it is among the most important truths of philosophy that can be verified.  Strictly logical truths are by nature necessary no matter what else is true and they can also be discovered by anyone who simply consults reason.

Look to examples of unverifiable ideas or those that often need social prompting to even enter the thoughts of sincere thinkers, such as the majority of ideas about something like history.  None of them affect the absolute core of epistemology and metaphysics, and none of them are what the nature of reality hinges on.  It is inevitably the truth that any person--rich or poor, old or young, bored or busy--could reason out by merely making use of the ability to grasp logic that are both absolutely certain (they cannot be false) and foundational in a vital sense.  In the case of epistemology and metaphysics, that which is foundational does not have the comparative triviality that a very basic, elementary premise might have in other cases, as it is on these things that all of reality hangs upon.

Purely logical and phenomenological truths take ultimate precedence over all things, with truths about morality coming after (after all, if objective values do not exist, no truth has real significance in a moral sense).  Whatever moral obligations or scientific laws might exist at least could have differed, and the subjective perceptions and preferences of individuals could also have differed from how they are, but the same conceptual conclusions must follow from the same ideas or truths no matter what else is true.  These logical truths can be reasoned out with no additional experiential reference point or sensory prompting in some cases, as with proving that sound deductive reasoning is intrinsically true or proving that one's mind exists, or they can be reasoned out with minimal experiential prompting in other cases, as with seeing another person and autonomously realizing they might not even exist.

All of this means that it is actually the truths that any willing and rational person can become familiar with that matter most.  Even apart from focusing on this fact, a rationalist could derive a sense of pleasure and empowerment from autonomous reflection and reasoning, and also from awareness of just how philosophically important specific logical truths are.  Focusing on the overlap between truths capable of being found in a purely autonomous manner and truths which are the most foundational and therefore weighty can add to this sense of connection with reason.  A sense of fulfillment is not what makes something true or what confirms that a logical fact is true; all the same, an experiential filter of excitement does no harm to rationalistic pursuits.

No comments:

Post a Comment