Within Reason #118 Joe Folley - Everything You Need to Know About Logic
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Aug 24, 2025 
Joe Folley, a Cambridge philosophy graduate and creator of Unsolicited Advice, dives deep into the world of logic. He compares Aristotelian and Stoic logic, revealing how these foundations impact clarity in reasoning. The discussion also touches on the importance of validity versus soundness in arguments and the intriguing consequences of contradictions. Folley simplifies complex concepts like fuzzy and modal logic, while humorously exploring truth claims—like whether your mum knows about your orientation—making the exploration of logic both enlightening and entertaining.
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Two Competing Conceptions Of Logic
- Logic can be seen as either one true, universal system or as a set of tools tailored to different tasks.
- The debate between logical monism and pluralism concerns whether one canonical logic or many context-specific logics are correct.
Frege United Two Ancient Traditions
- Frege unified Aristotelian predicate logic and Stoic propositional logic into modern symbolic logic.
- That reconciliation required substantial mathematical machinery and reshaped logic into a formal, mathematical discipline.
Propositionalize Arguments For Clarity
- Learn to translate spoken or paragraph arguments into propositional form to expose premises and conclusions.
- Use this practice to clarify interlocutors' claims before debating their merits.
