Making logic practical

pp. 150-164

in: Tom Rockmore, William J. Gavin, James G. Colbert, Thomas J. Blakeley, Marxism and alternatives, Berlin, Springer, 1981

Abstract

In the American school, traditional logic was viewed as inadequate. Dewey, for example, calls for a "logic of discovery, not a logic of argumentation, proof and persuasion".¹ He agrees with Bacon that learning consists in the growth of knowledge, and as such cannot be accomplished by syllogistic demonstration of what is already known. Classic logic is inherently conservative, emphasizing and falling back on the authority and intellectual achievements of the past.