How Formal Logic Can Make You a Better Thinker

Want to resist confirmation bias? It takes effort — but here’s where to start

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Picture this: you decided to study philosophy at university. After the madness of freshers’ week, you finally sit down to look through the materials for your very first week as a student. Amongst the various reading lists you are leafing through, your eyes stop on that module you’ve been ignoring up until this point: logic.

‘What is logic?’ you may ask yourself. ‘Why do I have to study it?’

Fast forward to week four. You’re buried under readings from every direction, already sketching outlines for essays you barely feel ready to write. And at this stage, logic starts to look more like maths to you.

In the first week, you thought this would be a breeze. In class, you examined a few arguments and, like budding detectives, picked out the premises, conclusion, and decided whether the argument is valid. Now you look at all the symbols on your notebook and wonder how did you, who thought you were choosing a bona fide humanities degree, end up doing maths again.

You probably already hate logic. And, if your other classes are fun and exciting — ethics, epistemology, intro to political philosophy — then logic loses out by taking time away from…