by Amy Rosenberg

Created on: June 21, 2008

I have spent several years doing my best to learn the intricacies of philosophy which is hardly an easy field of study. This goal has lead me to focus a significant amount of time on learning the basics of classical logic and how they can be applied to philosophy to simplify it down to an understandable level. Classical logic is a premise for understanding reality based on the idea that propositions, declarative assertion, can be analyzed to prove their reasonability and internal consistency. Logic does this by examining propositions for fallacies or faulty reasoning. Fallacies consist of propositions or parts of propositions that rely on unwarranted assumptions, are formally flawed, or violate one of the principles of classical logic, which are as follows:

1.The law of noncontradiction states, as Aristotle says, that "one cannot say of something that it is and that it is not in the same respect and at the same time." It is intrinsically linked to the law of excluded middle.
2.The law of the excluded middle states that a proposition can be either true or false, but not both. It is also called the law o excluded third, because it says that there are only ever two possibilities for a proposition, true or false.

The principals of logic are meant to insure that propositions are internally consistent and that they are based on reasonable assumptions. This means that a proposition must not assume as true some other proposition which has not been proved or which is unreasonable. For example, the following syllogism, or logically constructed deduction, contains an unreasonable major assumption or premise:

Major premise: All humans are immortal.
Minor premise: Socrates is human.
Conclusion: Socrates is immortal.

While the syllogism does not contain a formal fallacy, it is still unreasonable because it relies on an unwarranted conclusion. Also, a proposition cannot beg the question of its own truth.

The ultimate incarnation of logical rigor is skepticism, which attempts to apply its analysis to all assumptions, thereby eradicating all possible unwarranted conclusions beyond any reasonable doubt. The 17th century French philosopher Ren Descartes famously attempted to maintain an utterly skeptical worldview, doubting every idea one could possible to doubt. He doubted every aspect of experience, until he came to the final problem; If one cannot be sure of experience, of anything outside oneself, what certainty is there in oneself? Can a person know beyond any doubt that they themselves

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