think tank forum

was it invented or discovered?

go!

Having the idea of an element of logic would probably have been discovered, before inventing it. Maybe as a full form it was considered invented but just talking about initially I'm going to say discovered.

invented, like mathematics. i can think of how bivalence was "discovered" but hey, that was probably invented too. :P

cave man scenario....

"man. ive never seen such a huge fucking thing with giant teeth (tyrannosaurus). im fucking running." -- seems logical.

maybe thats instinct or just common sense... :)

Ah … ! What’s happening? it thought.

Er, excuse me, who am I?

Hello?

Why am I here? What’s my purpose in life?

What do I mean by who am I?

Calm down, get a grip now … oh! this is an interesting sensation, what is it? It’s a sort of … yawning, tingling sensation in my … my … well I suppose I’d better start finding names for things if I want to make any headway in what for the sake of what I shall call an argument I shall call the world, so let’s call it my stomach.

Good. Ooooh, it’s getting quite strong. And hey, what’s about this whistling roaring sound going past what I’m suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that … wind! Is that a good name? It’ll do … perhaps I can find a better name for it later when I’ve found out what it’s for. It must be something very important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of it. Hey! What’s this thing? This … let’s call it a tail - yeah, tail. Hey! I can can really thrash it about pretty good can’t I? Wow! Wow! That feels great! Doesn’t seem to achieve very much but I’ll probably find out what it’s for later on. Now - have I built up any coherent picture of things yet?

No.

Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I’m quite dizzy with anticipation …

Or is it the wind?

There really is a lot of that now isn’t it?

And wow! Hey! What’s this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like … ow … ound … round … ground! That’s it! That’s a good name - ground!

I wonder if it will be friends with me?

And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.

Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.

:D

where is that from, and what does it have to do with logic?

i'm lovin' it, though.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

It's a whale being spawned out of the Infinite Improbability Field. Along with petunias.

i get freaked out when i read something i wrote and have no recollection of it

logic was both invented and discovered. Discovered in the sense that just as man discovers a natural relationship between bodies and their attraction towards each other he must invent formulas that describe that reaction. Even something as clear as did Christopher Columbus discover America or invent America becomes a little hazy? Yes he certainly discovered it, but he also was highly influential in defining what it meant to his contemporaries, thus he invented it. Take for instance if he had instead found a small rock with just enough food to supply the trip back home. If he had instead described a whole new world with islands and continents called America and he was convincing then we would certainly say that he invented America. So the only difference I see is whether America existed before Columbus "discovered" it or not.

Logic I am sure did exist before someone discovered or invented its rules.