In the process of thinking, writing and speaking, people should use concepts, make judgment statements and conduct reasoning. The basic function of logic is to help people use concepts correctly, make accurate judgments and statements, and effectively reason and demonstrate. These three basic functions can be realized by learning logical knowledge, mastering logical methods, and accepting operational and implementable logical training, which is also the basis of embodying logical social functions.
Use concepts correctly. Concept is the cell of thinking, and correct use of concept is the basis of correct thinking. The requirements for the correct use of concepts are: the concept should be clear and definite; The concept connotation should be determined, and the concept should not be confused, let alone changed; The context of concepts should be clear, and the context of concepts should not be changed at will. In social life and even in academic research, the phenomenon that concepts can't be used correctly is still widespread. For example, when using a concept, the meaning of the concept is unclear, the thinking is vague and chaotic, and the ideas and opinions cannot be accurately expressed; When discussing a problem, confusing concepts or even stealing concepts, each holding one end, not only failed to discuss the problem clearly, but made it more confusing; Changing the conceptual context at will and transplanting concepts from one specific context to another will cause confusion in thinking and understanding. Conceptual confusion is an important reason for thinking confusion. Some vague understandings, one-sided views and extreme psychology in current society are directly related to the conceptual confusion in people's thinking. To eliminate ideological confusion, we should start with eliminating conceptual confusion.
Make an accurate judgment statement. The judgment sentence reflects the situation and characteristics of the thinking object. Making an accurate judgment statement is the basic requirement for correctly understanding things. The logical features of judgment sentences include qualitative features (affirmative or negative), quantitative features (all, part and individual) and internal structural features (joint sentences, alternative sentences, conditional sentences, etc.). In thinking activities, only by accurately using the form of judgment statement can we correctly reflect the situation and characteristics of things. To accurately reflect the essence of things, we can't confuse affirmation with negation. Affirmation is affirmation, and negation is negation. We should not say "yes" as "no" or "no" as "yes". To accurately reflect the characteristics of things, we should not say "some" as "all", let alone exaggerate "individual" as "everything", and vice versa. To accurately reflect the internal structural characteristics of things, the "juxtaposition" relationship should be expressed by conjunctions (and), and the "choice" relationship should be expressed by choices (or). These two statements should not be confused. The sufficient conditional statement is "If …… then ………" The necessary conditional statement is "Only ………………", which reflects the different conditional causality between things. If we confuse these two statements, we can't correctly understand the conditional causality between things.
Reasoning and demonstrating effectively. Effective reasoning is to strictly follow the rules of logical reasoning and draw conclusions from the premise. There are two common phenomena in reasoning and argumentation. One phenomenon is "only judging, not demonstrating". Some people put forward their own views and opinions without providing arguments or arguments. "I think that's it. My point of view is correct." This is a typical dogmatism. One phenomenon is "arbitrary speculation, arbitrary play." Some people start from some situations they know, do not follow the rules of logical reasoning, and arbitrarily play and associate, and the conclusions they draw are not necessarily related to the facts, or even completely contrary to the actual situation. Lack of logical literacy and thinking activities that do not follow logical laws are important reasons for the proliferation of irrational thinking in society.
At present, it is very necessary to promote the popularization of logic in order to improve people's thinking level. Logic is an instrumental discipline, and one of its basic characteristics is operability. The three basic functions of the above logic are concrete and can be realized through an operable and implementable process. Only when the basic function of logic is really played well can its social function be truly reflected. This is a problem that must be paid attention to in the process of logic popularization.