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Full Idea
I might as well question the laws of logic as the laws of chess. If I change the rules it is a different game and there is an end of it.
Gist of Idea
Laws of logic are like laws of chess - if you change them, it's just a different game
Source
Ludwig Wittgenstein (Lectures 1930-32 (student notes) [1931], A XI.3)
Book Ref
Wittgenstein,Ludwig: 'Lectures in Cambridge 1930-32', ed/tr. Lee,Desmond [Blackwell 1980], p.19
A Reaction
No, that isn't the end of it, because there are meta-criteria for preferring one game to another. Why don't we just give up classical logic? It would be such fun to have a wild wacky logic. We can start with 'tonk'.
| 13251 | Each person is free to build their own logic, just by specifying a syntax [Carnap] |
| 18709 | Laws of logic are like laws of chess - if you change them, it's just a different game [Wittgenstein] |
| 12394 | If the result is bad, we change the rule; if we like the rule, we reject the result [Goodman] |
| 20296 | Logic needs general conventions, but that needs logic to apply them to individual cases [Quine, by Rey] |
| 8998 | Claims that logic and mathematics are conventional are either empty, uninteresting, or false [Quine] |
| 8999 | Logic isn't conventional, because logic is needed to infer logic from conventions [Quine] |
| 9000 | If a convention cannot be communicated until after its adoption, what is its role? [Quine] |
| 19289 | Maybe conventionalism applies to meaning, but not to the truth of propositions expressed [Hale] |