Alfred Tarski on the Benefits of the Knowledge of Logic. A Timely Reminder

The specifics of the problems facing the world and most occupying the mind of the great logician, Alfred Tarski, some 80 years ago, were certainly different from those now facing the United States of America and occupying our minds. Despite that, however, that which he wrote in 1940 in the preface to his classic Introduction to Logic and to the Methodology of Deductive Sciences still rings true.

I have no illusions that the development of logical thought, in particular, will have a very essential effect upon the process of the normalization of human relationships; but I do believe that the wider diffusion of the knowledge of logic may contribute to the acceleration of the process. For, on the one hand, by making the meaning of concepts precise and uniform in its own field and by stressing the necessity of such precision and uniformization in any other domain, logic leads to the possibility of better understanding among those who have the will for it.  And, on the other hand, by perfecting and sharpening the tools of thought, it makes men [sic] more critical—and thus makes less likely their being misled by all the pseudo-reasonings to which they are incessantly exposed in various parts of the world today.

Alfred Tarski, Introduction to Logic and to the Methodology of Deductive Sciences. (3rd edition; New York: Oxford University Press, 1965 [1941]), p. xv.

About Rchard E. Hennessey

See above, "About the Author/Editor."
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