Logic

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Aristotle

Logic (Greek: ἡ λογική [τέχνη] he logiké [téchne] "the thinking [art, procedure]") or logical consistency is the science of the laws of correct reasoning, progressing step by step through inference, i.e. discursively. In classical logic, founded by Aristotle, every logical statement has exactly two truth values, namely true (t) and false (f) (bivalence principle).

Human Organisation as the Basis of Logic

Logic has its basis in the generally human, but individually differentiated organisation.

„If we all think alike, it is only because we are all organised in the same individual way and because the intellect is linked to this individual which is organised in the same way in all human beings. You do think differently insofar as you are differentiated. But these are nuances that have nothing to do with actual logic. But actual logical and dialectical thinking is an outflow of the general human, but individually differentiated organisation.“ (Lit.:GA 74, p. 56)

„The head is externally in its form, in its physical form, the most perfect that we have. But it is so for the reason that it is actually an image of our spiritual organisation between death and a new birth. In a certain sense, it is a seal imprint of what we were before our birth, before our conception. Everything that is spiritual-soul has been imprinted in our head, so that it presents a picture of our pre-natal life. And actually only the etheric body is fully active in our head apart from the physical body. The other members of the being, the astral body and the I, fill the head, but they reflect their activity in it; they are active for themselves and the head only reflects their activity. This head exists in general, from the outside, as an image of the supersensible world [...] It is already necessary that one abandons the materialistic view, as if we had so extraordinarily much of the head - we need it as a mirroring apparatus - that one abandons this view. That is necessary. We must learn to see the head as an image of our pre-natal spiritual-soul organisation.

But imagining is indeed bound to the head, but not judging. Judging is actually bound to the middle organism and especially to the arms and hands. We actually judge with our arms and hands. We imagine with our head. So when we imagine the content of a judgement, the judgement itself takes place in the mechanism of the arms and hands, and only the imaginary mirror image takes place in the head. You will be able to understand this inwardly and then see through it as an important didactic truth. You can say to yourself: the middle organism is actually there to convey the world of feelings. The rhythmic organism of the human being is essentially the seat of the world of feeling; it is actually there to mediate the world of feeling. Judging has a deep relationship with feeling. Even the most abstract judgement has a kinship with feeling. When we make a judgement: Karlchen is good - that is a judgement, then we have the feeling of affirmation; and the feeling of affirmation and negation plays a great role in judgement, in general the feeling that is expressed in the predicative, in relation to the subjective. And it is only because the feeling belongs so strongly to the semi-conscious that we do not pay attention to how much the feeling is involved in judging. Now in man, because he is to be preferably a judging being, his arm organism is brought into harmony with the rhythmic organism, but at the same time freed from the continuing rhythmic organism. Thus, in the physical connection between the rhythmic organism and the liberated arm organism, we have expressed physically-sensually the way in which feeling is connected with judgement.

Conclusion, forming conclusions, is now connected with legs and feet. Of course, you will be laughed at today if you tell a psychologist that one does not conclude with the head, but with the legs, with the feet, but the latter is the truth, and if we as human beings were not organised around legs and feet, we would not be able to form conclusions. The thing is this: we imagine with the etheric body, and this has its support in the head organisation, but we judge - that is, in the original elementary way - with the astral body, and this has its support in the arms and hands for judging. We conclude with the legs and feet, because we conclude with the I, which is supported by the legs and feet.

You see, the whole human being is involved in logic. And that is very important, that one finds one's way into it, that one thinks the whole human being involved in logic.“ (Lit.:GA 302, p. 29ff))

Literatur
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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