How to Think Logically, in 10 Easy SF Quotes

 

            Rational thought, it has been said, is an acquired taste.  And where, one might ask, is one to go to acquire such a taste?  Well, the logical answer to that question is: one goes to the logical to acquire logic—and who is more logical than Mr. Spock himself?  But how does one learn from a fictional character?  Again, the answer is simple: listen to what he says.

            But before we go to our teacher to learn how to be logical, we should ask, what is logic?  Well, logical or rational thinking is simply thinking clearly.  Speaking the truth, said Aristotle, means saying of what is, that it is, and of what is not, that it is not[1]—matching our words to reality.  Logical thought—which also benefitted a great deal from Aristotle—is simply thought which seeks to find “what is” and match our thoughts and our words to it.

            Now, what can Spock teach us about doing this?  Well, we begin with a few notes of caution.   First, we must remind ourselves, as we noted to begin, that rational or logical thought is not automatic, but it is a skill to be acquired—an observation we must credit to Charles Gunn, attorney-at-law, in season 5 of the television show Angel (episode 11, “Damage”), where he said simply, “Rational thought: it’s an acquired taste.”  Secondly, even Spock himself noted that logic has it limits when he warned his young protégé Valeris that “Logic is the beginning of wisdom…[but] not the end”:

            Again, we say it: logic means finding what is, and matching our thoughts and words to that.  For this, we need evidence to guide us in discovering what is.  What we do not need is feelings and desires getting in the way, making us see things the way we want them to be, rather than the way they are.  We find this idea at least twice in Spock’s words of wisdom.  The first time is in Star Trek IV.  Spock has just finished a test of his knowledge, and the testing computer ends with “How do you feel?”  To which, of course, Spock responds, “I do not understand the question…The question is irrelevant.”  And so it is, at least when we are reasoning our way to the truth.  How we feel does not matter:

            Likewise, what we want is irrelevant.  What is relevant is the situation at hand.  This truth Spock expressed to Valeris (not long after cautioning her about the limits of logic) when she found herself in an unexpected situation.  When she said essentially, “I don’t want to do this,” he said “What you want is irrelevant; what you’ve chosen is at hand.”  In any given situation, the truth of what is—even if it is something that results from a choice we have made—must be discovered and confronted first.  Only after that can we consult our feelings and desires:

            And so, in order, first to discover, then to submit to (or demonstrate to others) what is, we must learn to follow the advice Spock once gave to his good friend Dr. Leonard McCoy when the good doctor was getting—as was his habit—a bit too heated up: “Really, Dr. McCoy, you must learn to govern your passions.  They will be your undoing" (the quote occurs some 3:00 into the video below):

            Okay, so, all we have to do is control our passions, our feelings and desires, and look at the evidence, and all will be well, right?  Wrong.  We must also be careful to misunderstand the very evidence we are looking at, Because, as another wise man of SF once said, “Your eyes can deceive you, don’t trust them.” (Obi-Wan Kenobi).  Indeed, as Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge said when asked, “Why do you doubt your senses?” “Because…a little thing affects them.  A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats.  [What I see before me] may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato.”

Here are those very words, performed by the rather Spock-like Mr. Data on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation:

            So, we ought indeed to base our reasoning on evidence, but it must be relevant evidence, and we must be careful not to be deceived by faulty evidence or evidence gatherers.  Joe Friday’s famous “Just the facts, ma’am” may sum this up, but discovering exactly what the facts are takes much care and hard work—not to mention that, sometimes, even our emotions may be relevant facts.  As Captain Jonathan Archer said when he was accused of letting his emotions cloud his judgment., “My emotions guide my judgment!”

            Just so.

            For Captain Archer understood, at least intuitively, one simple truth: not everything we “feel” is a mere emotion.  Love, for example, the sort of unconditional compassion the captain was invoking at the time, is not an emotion.  The Doctor (go ahead, ask the question—yes, that Doctor) once said it perfectly:

Love.  It’s not an emotion.  Love is a promise [i.e. a choice; cf. what Admiral Cornwell said to Dr. Hugh Culver on the same topic in an episode of Discovery].  When we say emotions are irrelevant, we are pointing to a larger truth: our egos (often what we really mean when we speak of our “feelings”) are irrelevant.  And a truly logical person—such as Spock—should have no ego to bruise:

            Finally, the key to properly understanding the evidence relevant to any topic is finding the proper reference frame for looking at the subject, and understanding all the relevant words and idea.  Hence our final two quotes from Spock:

“It would be impossible to discuss [any] subject without a common frame of reference”

And:

Precision of language is paramount, so ask questions like, “What does it mean, ‘exact change’?”:

 

Go forth and meditate on these things.  Master them.  The rest is commentary.

 

 

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[1] The Metaphysics (1011b25): “To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true”.