Page 15 - Judaic Logic

INTRODUCTION 9

Usually beginning with a critical review of traditional claims, pointing out logical
weaknesses or factual inaccuracies or uncertainties, such attempts would often include proposals
for legal change, generally with a view to making life easier for Jews, allowing them to adapt more
readily to the modern world. However, the authors were in all evidence rather frequently
unacquainted with the traditional answers to their questions; furthermore, even when their critique
might be convincing, they often allowed themselves to draw conclusions more radical than their
premises made possible.
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To give an example : one might argue that even acknowledging that Biblical passages like
the one cited above (Deut. 17:8-13) effectively grant legislative power to the Tanaim, Amoraim,
and subsequent Rabbis, it is not manifestly evident why such past judgments should be
irreversible. All one might affirm, logically, is that so long as the judges in each generation,
appointed by those in the previous generation, continue to confirm these judgments, they hold;
otherwise, they would cease to be binding. Claims that the Talmudic generations were necessarily
wiser, because closer in time to the Sinai revelation, are rather circular arguments, based on a
prejudicially positive evaluation, rather than on a logical connection; one could equally well claim
(even if just as prejudicially) that most of these people were rather ignorant and superstitious by
modern standards.
However, it must be noted that such objections do not really make possible a breach in the
continuity of Rabbinical authority as such. Even if changes in the law, through reassessments of
the logic or consideration of new data or new conditions, were in principle permissible, they would
have to come specifically from within the line of succession of Jewish authority, to be in fact
permissible. Anything else would effectively be an illicit attempt to takeover an institution, a
misappropriation of the name “Judaism” by a new religion. There is no license to invent (as
happened historically) a new line of spiritual guides called “Rabbis”, not linked by education and
appointment to the original line, and unable to claim direct descent from Moses. So long as the
legitimate authorities consensually reaffirm the same judgments, they would seem to remain
binding.

2. A Logic Primer.

The reader of the present volume does not need to have previously studied logic in
depth to be able to follow the discussion fully, but will still need to grasp certain concepts
and terminologies. We will try to fulfill this specific task here, while reminding the reader
that the subject is much, much wider than that.
Broadly speaking, we refer to any thought process which tends to convince people
as ‘logical’. If such process continues to be convincing under perspicacious scrutiny, it is
regarded as good logic; otherwise, as bad. More specifically, we consider only ‘good’ logic
as at all logic; ‘bad’ logic is then simply illogical. The loose definition of logic allows us to
speak of stupid forms of thought as ‘logics’ (e.g. ‘racist logic’), debasing the term; the
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stricter definition is more demanding.
Logic, properly speaking, is both an art and a science. As an art, its purpose is the
acquisition of knowledge; as a science, it is the validation of knowledge. Many people are
quite strong in the art of logic, without being at all acquainted with the science of logic.

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The illustration here given is rough, and should not be taken as a thorough analysis of the
issues touched upon, pro or con.
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We may also speak of 'a logic' in a non-pejorative way, when referring to intelligent forms
of thought which are found especially in certain areas of knowledge or scientific fields; e.g. logistics
is the logic of willed deployment of (material or mental) objects in space and time, mathematics is
the logic of numbers and spatio-temporal relations. Similarly, historians of logic may objectively
refer to the logic of (used by or known to) different geographical or cultural groups or periods of
history. All specific logics, good or bad, may be subjected to objective study, of course.