Logic is about good thinking, about good reasoning. As you master the Trivium, you will become a superior thinker, arguer, and debater.

Logic is about the “general laws” of valid reasoning. It helps direct our minds to discover, ideally, what is true. This is the aim of logic. Insofar as we have true premises, logic helps us discover additional truths that “follow from” those premises.

It’s also about the “mental representations” of thought. This is the subject matter of logic. It concerns the “conceptual” order.

Aristotelian-Scholastic Logic concerns itself with how we conceptually form ideas, use those ideas to form propositions, and how we use propositions in arguments.

Logic is both an “art” and a “science.” It’s an art, since it gives us practical rules about reasoning well. It’s a tool to apply. Yet it’s a science, too, since it gives us “general laws,” and explains why they are laws, of valid reasoning.

@naturaltheology

Logic allows you to “declare your independence.”

It strengthens your ability to evaluate arguments and theories on your own.

“Modern” or Mathematical Logic

Aristotle’s logic had dominion for hundreds of years. It’s not quite fair to claim that logic didn’t develop over those years; it did, just research the medieval contributions to logic. Note that the usual presentations of traditional logic in most contemporary textbooks tends to reveal, at best, a simplified version of what is really a robust system.

Still, mathematical logic got its push from Gottlob Frege (1848-1925). It was thought that, because language can be so vague, an exact system with precise symbols was required.

Propositional logic was developed, where various “sentential connectives” allow you to relate different propositions. For example, you can combine two propositions through the “and” sentential connective to form a conjunction.

The only problem, though, is that propositional logic can’t handle syllogisms the way Aristotelian-Scholastic logic can. This required the introduction of predicate logic, with a means to quantify variables. Since then, logic has gone through several revolutions with exotic systems: modal logic, deontic logic, etc.

I remember a romance of a rambling but rather interesting sort which came out in one of the strange and sensational series that used to be produced by the late W. T. Stead. It began with the incident of a modern sceptical heroine going into a confessional-box and telling the priest that she did not believe in his religion.

He asked her what she did believe in and she said reflectively, “Well, I don’t believe in the Bible, and I don’t think I believe in the immortality of the soul, and I’m not sure that I believe in God,” and so on.

And the unmoved cleric replied, “I didn’t ask you what you didn’t believe, but what you do believe.”

“Well,” said the lady, “I believe that two and two make four.”

“Very well then,” said the priest, “live up to that.”

That always struck me as a good story, though it was in a queer setting; but it has had a still more queer sequel. In those last days of the nineteenth century, the sceptical lady did make that quotation from the multiplication table assuming it to be a minimum which nobody could possibly help believing. Yet somewhere about the same time the typical prophet of that period, Ibsen, may have been writing the words: “Who knows that two and two do not make five in the fixed stars?” One would have thought that in an age of such fine and finished rationalists, somebody would have been rational enough to answer him with the obvious question: “If you are not sure there are any fixed facts, how do you come to be sure there are any fixed stars?” The very existence of many fixed stars is only proved by mathematics; that is, it is made by making a million times over the assumption that two and two make four... The mathematical formula may be the maximum of the lady’s belief and the minimum of the priest’s philosophy, but he is more ready to stand up for his philosophy than she is for her religion.

__, God and Intelligence In Modern Philosophy

So tragic. God rest his soul.

Courage.

“I have often regretted having spoken, but never having kept silent.”

Abba Arsenius - Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Desert Fathers).

“if independent witnesses can be found… it is ALWAYS possible to assign a number of independent witnesses, the improbability of the falsehood of whose concurring testimony shall be greater than the improbability of the alleged miracle” —Charles Babbage (1837)

I have something really cool to announce soon. Related to education and seminary in Ethiopia.

Maor Lutheran Theological Seminary

John 8:12

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Open Registration Announcement

On this day, October 18, 2025 G.C., Maor Lutheran Theological Seminary (MLTS) announces the opening of registration for its online Certificate and Diploma programs.

As a seminary of The Lutheran Church of Ethiopia (LCE), we are committed to the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions, preparing servants of Christ to faithfully proclaim the Word of God, administer the Sacraments rightly, and care for God’s people. These programs are designed to form faithful lay people, who will be firmly rooted in God’s Word and equipped for faithful service in the Kingdom of God.

If you desire to deepen your knowledge of God’s Word and be strengthened in confessional Lutheran teaching and practice, we warmly invite you to enroll.

👉 Fill out the Pre-Admission Form here:
https://forms.gle/aEK3jX5jvedvCgoe7

Now is the time. You can register for online classes