The Colors of Logic

논리의 색깔

This essay seeks new possibilities in experimental thinking and to find ways in which philosophy can aid humanistic imagination. In emphasizing logical precision, philosophy has so far ignored the role of imagination in philosophical logic and limited itself to deductive logic. Despite the obvious fact that no degree of logical precision can fully account for, nor provide complete expression for, the vast range of human thought, other modes of thinking have suffered in the shadow of deductive logic. But these non-deductive models of thinking can in many cases better explain the emotive, aesthetic logic of the humanities. The kinds of models (deductive and non-deductive) in humanistic thinking include dialectic, abductive, analogic, pragmatic, inductive, and deductive logic. Each mode of logical thinking may be assigned a color that represents its emotive characteristics: red for dialectics (opposition): blue for abduction (transcendence); yellow for analogy (flexibility); green for pragmatics (peace); violet/purple for induction (fantasy); and finally orange for deduction (trust). And each mode can also be keyed to major areas in humanistic thought, making up the following connections: dialectic-red-history; abduction-blue-literature; analogy-yellow-philosophy ; pragmatics-green-religion ; induction-violet/purple-arts; and deduction-orange-science. These connections serve to illustrate the interrelationship between emotion and intelligence, leading us toward considerations of emotional intelligence and intelligent emotion. The former is increasingly gaining attention, as the effect of 'mood space' on intelligence is being scrutinized. That the rate of suicide among mathematicians is very high points to the need for careful study of the reverse relationship between emotion and intelligence, intelligent emotion. The need for the latter is all the more pressing, as the emergence of new technology is allowing, even forcing, us more and more to experience the world intellectually (i.e., sans emotive experience) through a new virtual space called cyberspace.