“All logical arguments can be defeated by the simple refusal to reason logically”
Source: Dreams of a Final Theory
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Steven Weinberg 46
American theoretical physicist 1933Related quotes

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

“A defeated argument that refuses to be obliterated can remain very alive.”

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

“Formal logic and the logical syllogism encapsulate connectedness in reasoning.”
1980s, Laws of Media: The New Science (with Eric McLuhan) (1988)
“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)
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.