What may be meant by AndreGide's comment that what eludes logic is the most precious element in us and one can draw nothing from a syllogism that the mind has not put there in advance?

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Carsten Stang                12. Dec 2002

Tok Essay No2

What may be meant by Andre Gide’s comment that what eludes logic is the most precious element in us and one can draw nothing from a syllogism that the mind has not put there in advance?

Gaining knowledge is a process which at least passively goes on in any human a life time long. Gaining knowledge goes through certain ways of knowledge. Those ways are language, perception, emotion and reason. But they are severely different from each other. The way of knowing through language, for example is a way that does not go without authority. In this way knowledge is told. It is the way that is mostly dependent on the knower than any other way of knowing. The way of knowing through perception is a way that is fairly subjective. The knower mostly gains it from past experience. For example if one’s foot hurts because one has burned it with hot water, one has gained the knowledge that hot water can hurt your foot. Another way of knowing is logic, which is one of the most important ways today. It is what math is based on. Emotion, the fourth and last way of knowing is a rather sensitive way. It is dominated by feelings, contrary to logic. Andre Gide, a philosopher, once said that “what eludes logic is the most precious element in us and one can draw nothing from a syllogism that the mind has not put there in advance.”  Why then is logic limited to this extent, emotion isn’t?

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Logic has got two different kind of logic. One is called deductive logic, which is “concerned with the rules for determining when an argument is valid.” It is not concerned with truth at all but the process of reasoning. It helps us understand the clear reason behind the argument. It is constructed the way that premises lead to the conclusion of an issue. It works from the general down to the specific and therefore often can be wrong. An example for deductive logic is: All plants are green; Grass is a plant; therefore grass is green.

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