Logic Directs our inquiries after truth.
Can you define it?
Logic is the science of the formal principles of reasoning. You are taught that in Masonry logic directs your inquiries after truth, but do you understand it? Do you know which category of Logic you are using if you start with “certain premises laid down admitted or granted”? Being governed by logic is the opposite of being governed by your passions. This is why you learn as an Entered Apprentice that you joined to learn to subdue your passions in order to improve yourself. It is why subduing your passions is the first in the list of things you learn in Speculative Masonry.
Logic became very important during the Enlightenment.
The Regius Poem in 1390 AD, which has the first list of the seven liberal arts and sciences which Freemasons are expected to study, did not include Logic. When it was drafted, Dialect was third in the list. By the 1600s scientific reasoning was overtaking conventional doctrine and Freemasons were at the forefront of that revolution. Understanding and using logic to direct their inquiries after truth became crucial for our Ancient Brethren and the English language had become standardized. Therefore, they substituted Logic for Dialect in the list.
Deductive vs. Inductive Reasoning
The first of the videos clarifies the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning. Importantly for you, it puts both in the context of Enlightenment thinking. Understanding that crucial difference is vital for Freemasons.
Forces that incite your passions
The second video gives examples that will stimulate you into a more thoughtful examination of the “arguments” bombarding you daily. It will help you see through those trying to get you to support a point of view based on an appeal to your “passions” rather than your reason. The internet, advertisers, news commentators and political spinsters are all working to get you to substitute their preconceptions for your reasoned inquiries after truth.
There is also a video interview with Bertrand Russell who is one of the leading logicians and philosophers of the 20th Century in the Fiat Lux section of this website.