{"id":476,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:14","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=476"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:14","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:14","slug":"38-the-training-of-the-logical-faculty-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17\/38-the-training-of-the-logical-faculty-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","title":{"rendered":"-38_The Training of the Logical Faculty.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nEIGHT
\nThe Training of the Logical Faculty<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n                       
\nTHE<\/b>
\ntraining of the logical reason must necessarily follow the training of the
\nfaculties which collect the material on which the logical reason must work. Not
\nonly so but the mind must have some development of the faculty of
\ndealing with words before it can deal successfully with ideas. The question is,
\nonce this preliminary work is done, what is the best way of teaching the boy to
\nthink correctly from premises. For the logical reason cannot proceed without
\npremises. It either infers from facts to a conclusion, or from previously formed
\nconclusions to a fresh one, or from one fact to another. It either induces,
\ndeduces or simply infers. I see the sunrise day after day, I conclude or induce
\nthat it rises as a law daily after a varying interval of darkness. I have
\nalready ascertained that wherever there is smoke, there is fire. I have induced
\nthat general rule from an observation of facts. I deduce that in a particular
\ncase of smoke there is a fire behind. I infer that a man must have lit it from
\nthe improbability of any other cause under the particular circumstances. I
\ncannot deduce it because fire is not always created by human kindling; it may be
\nvolcanic or caused by a stroke of lightning or the sparks from some kind of
\nfriction in the neighbourhood.
\n   
\nThere are three elements necessary to correct reasoning: first, the correctness
\nof the facts or conclusions I start from, secondly, the completeness as well as
\nthe accuracy of the data I start from, thirdly, the elimination of other
\npossible or impossible conclusions from the same facts. The fallibility of the
\nlogical reason is due partly to avoidable negligence and looseness in securing
\nthese conditions, partly to the difficulty of getting all the facts correct,
\nstill more to the difficulty of getting all the facts complete, most of all, to
\nthe extreme difficulty of eliminating all possible conclusions except the one
\nwhich happens to be right.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage-226<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nNo fact is supposed to be mare perfectly established than the universality of
\nthe Law of Gravitation as an imperative rule, yet a single new fact
\ninconsistent with it would upset this sup- posed universality. And such facts
\nexist. Nevertheless by care and keenness the fallibility may be reduced to its
\nminimum.
\n   
\nThe usual practice is to train the logical reason by teaching the science of Logic. This is an instance of the prevalent error by which book knowledge of a thing is made the object of the study instead of the thing itself. The
\nexperience of reasoning and its errors should be given to the mind and it
\nshould be taught to
\nobserve haw these work far itself; it should proceed from the example to
\nthe rule and from the accumulating harmony of rules to the formal science of
\nthe subject, not from the formal science to the rule, and from the rule to
\nthe example.
\n   
\nThe first step is to make the young mind interest itself in drawing inferences
\nfrom the facts, tracing cause and effect. It should then be led on to notice
\nits successes and its failures and the reason of the success and of the
\nfailure; the incorrectness of the fact started from, the haste in drawing
\nconclusions from insufficient facts, the carelessness in accepting a
\nconclusion which is improbable, little supported by the data or open to
\ndoubt, the indolence or prejudice which does not wish to consider other
\npossible explanations or conclusions. In this way the mind can be trained to
\nreason as correctly as the fallibility of human logic will allow,
\nminimising the chances of error. The study of formal logic should be
\npostponed to a later time when it can easily be mastered in a very brief
\nperiod, since it will be only the systematising of an art perfectly well-known
\nto the student.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-227<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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