“All logical arguments can be defeated by the simple refusal to reason logically”

Source: Dreams of a Final Theory

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "All logical arguments can be defeated by the simple refusal to reason logically" by Steven Weinberg?
Steven Weinberg photo
Steven Weinberg 46
American theoretical physicist 1933

Related quotes

Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“Arguments cannot be answered by personal abuse; there is no logic in slander, and falsehood, in the long run, defeats itself.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Source: Some Mistakes of Moses

Baba Hari Dass photo

“I am the logic of all arguments - Arguments are of three kinds:”

Baba Hari Dass (1923–2018) master yogi, author, builder, commentator of Indian spiritual tradition

1) jalpa (arrogant argument) – In this type of argument one tries to establish one's point of view by contradicting the opponent's argument without considering whether the opponent's argument is right or wrong.
2) vitanda (destructive criticism) – In this type of argument the person simply destroys the opponent's viewpoint by misleading argument.
3) vada (logical argument) – In this type of argument one uses a method of discussion with reasoning with an aim to find out what is truth and what is untruth. Reasoning is the best method of discussion to achieve the truth. This is why the Lord says, “Among arguments, I am vada or logical argument.”
Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Ch. VII-XII, 2014

Tryon Edwards photo

“Prejudices are rarely overcome by argument; not being founded in reason they cannot be destroyed by logic.”

Tryon Edwards (1809–1894) American theologian

Source: A Dictionary of Thoughts, 1891, p. 26.

Alfred Tarski photo

“Logic is justly considered the basis of all other sciences, even if only for the reason that in every argument we employ concepts taken from the field of logic, and that ever correct inference proceeds in accordance with its laws.”

Alfred Tarski (1901–1983) Polish-American logician

Introduction to Logic: and to the Methodology of Deductive Sciences. (1941/2013) Tr. Olaf Helmer, pp. 108-110.

John Nash photo
Marshall McLuhan photo

“Formal logic and the logical syllogism encapsulate connectedness in reasoning.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

1980s, Laws of Media: The New Science (with Eric McLuhan) (1988)

John Nash photo

“The very reason we need logic at all is because most reasoning is not conscious at all.”

Book I, Chapter 1, p. 41
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“His logic may be airtight but his argument, far from revealing the delusions of living experience, only exposes the limitations of logic.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Source: The Journey Home (1977), p. 121
Context: As for the "solitary confinement of the mind," my theory is that solipsism, like other absurdities of the professional philosopher, is a product of too much time wasted in library stacks between the covers of a book, in smoke-filled coffeehouses (bad for brains) and conversation-clogged seminars. To refute the solipsist or the metaphysical idealist all that you have to do is take him out and throw a rock at his head: if he ducks he's a liar. His logic may be airtight but his argument, far from revealing the delusions of living experience, only exposes the limitations of logic.

Related topics