The failed crusade against Aristotle’s philosophy of logic

The philosophical innovations brought forth by #aristotle (384-322 BC) are momentous, truly revolutionary, especially in the field of logic. His identification of a precise method (which he called #syllogism ) to reach accurate conclusions allowed, for the first time in history, to conduct rational debates. Modern #civilisation is built on the pillars of Aristotle’s logic and the enemies of civilisation know that it can be undermined by severing those pillars. Without well-defined rules of #logic , a rational discussion becomes impossible and anything goes. Unfortunately, #history has generated many crusaders against Aristotelian logic. The damage they’ve inflicted on civilisation is proportional to the extent of their popularity. The confusion they have created is proportional to how far they’ve twisted the works of Aristotle. The French philosopher Rene #descartes (1596–1650) made vast efforts to undermine Aristotelian logic. In his book titled “Meditations on First Philosophy” from 1841, Descartes gives long arguments in favour of subjective #introspection ; he speaks in favour of finding the truth in pure abstractions. Descartes’ proposal, if taken seriously, would lead to a chain of deductions (without any empirical data) from essential ideas that philosophers have identified through introspection. Thankfully, Descartes devoted the following decades of his life to mathematics, geometry and astronomy, instead of trying to spread his #philosophical delusions. His logic makes no sense and does not refute Aristotle’s in any way. A second crusader against Aristotelian logic is #johnlocke (1632–1704). His “Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” published in 1690, summarises his views on logic. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/the-failed-crusade-against-aristotles-philosophy-of-logic/