Logic Primer

As I was saying, logic is skill, and if you have skill you can certainly kill. I shall demonstrate to you the first simple techniques that will put you on track to being as great a barbarian as me! Unlikely as it may be.

What is logic?

Philosophers can spend their entire careers debating this question while I steal their lands, their women, burn their books and defecate over their reputation. A true barbarian would simply take logic to be a system of rules by which one can conclude that a statement is true given than some other statements are also true.

Now this is all a little high brow and pompous. Indeed I shall need to armwrestle Surtr after this blog in order to regain some of my barbarity, but without it you would be little more than an unarmed peasant facing a horde of angry Vikings!

Ahhh, good times. Hint: I am not a peasant.

Let us begin. I make my first statement, assumed to be true:

The blood of my enemies is red. (S1)

What statements can I conclude from it? Can I conclude that the people I pillage are weak?

NO!

Even though experience verifies it to be true, its conclusion is not possible given my initial statement (S1)

One statement which can be concluded from (S1) is:

The blood of my enemies is not blue (S2)

Why? Because if something is red, IT CANNOT BE BLUE! Notice, that from (S2) I cannot then conclude (S1), for if something is not blue, then it may be green, yellow, purple, cyan, magenta, grapefruit and so on, none of which are red.

Notice, that given any statement P implying any other statement Q, one may not necessarily then conclude that Q then implies P.

This is a fundamental error that many make, and it makes Olaf ANGRY! Many a barbarian have found themselves slain after showing this lack of basic technique.

I need to go breathe in some mead now.

Until next time, wimps!