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    Frege's distinction between psychologism and logical vali... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Most human errors in reasoning stem from false principles rather than from invalid inference

    Frege's distinction between psychologism and logical validity establishes that the frequency of a reasoning error in human practice has no bearing on whether that error is formal or material in character.

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    Reasons For

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    • 1.Logical validity is objective and timeless; it cannot depend on contingent facts about human cognitive performance or error rates.
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    • 2.A formal fallacy remains formally invalid even if most people commit it; psychological frequency doesn't alter logical structure.
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    • 3.Frege's anti-psychologism correctly separates the normative laws of logic from descriptive psychology of reasoning.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.The distinction between formal and material errors itself may be psychologically constructed and depend on human cognitive categories.
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    • 2.If reasoning errors are universal or near-universal, this suggests they may reflect constraints on human rationality, not logical invalidity.
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    • 3.Frege's strict separation risks making logic irrelevant to actual human cognition; error frequency may indicate practical limitations of formal systems.
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    Key Terms

    Formal error(Rosmini's account of error)
    Error that attempts to alter the being of things, originating in the will rather than the intellect, senses, or involuntary reflection
    Frege(as a major historical figure in philosophy)
    Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) was a German logician and philosopher who founded modern logic and did groundbreaking work on how language relates to meaning and existence.
    Logical validity(as used in logic)
    When an argument's conclusion must be true if all its starting assumptions are true, regardless of what the words specifically refer to.
    Material error(as the other type of reasoning mistake being contrasted with formal error)
    A mistake in reasoning where the logical structure is correct, but one of the facts you started with is false; for example, 'all cats are reptiles, all reptiles are cold-blooded, so all cats are cold-blooded' (the form is fine, but the first claim is wrong).
    psychologism(Philosophy of social science)
    The view that the social sciences are sciences of the mind or psyche of society, treating mental states as the building blocks of the social

    Connections

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    Truth & Knowledge1 linkedSkepticism1 linked

    Related

    A formal fallacy remains formally invalid even if most people commit it; psychol...Frege's anti-psychologism correctly separates the normative laws of logic from d...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit
    Frege's strict separation risks making logic irrelevant to actual human cognitio...
    If reasoning errors are universal or near-universal, this suggests they may refl...
    +3 moreShow less
    Logical validity is objective and timeless; it cannot depend on contingent facts...Most human errors in reasoning stem from false principles rather than from inval...The distinction between formal and material errors itself may be psychologically...