Bad Logic as Immorality in Society
The relationship between bad logic and immorality, however, is by no means limited to grand-scale, social and cultural events and institutions. Personal acts of immorality are also committed by those whose primary “moral” flaw is that of having poor logic skills.
Child abuse, spouse abuse, elder abuse and animal abuse are oftentimes predicated upon a genuine but irrational belief in the mind of the perpetrator that the abuse is “good for” the victim. In such a case, the failure may not be so much one of personality as it is one of intellectual ability, in particular, reasoning skills.
Perhaps the pro-life advocates who murder doctors and bomb abortion clinics are the ultimate embodiment of this phenomenon.
Bad Logic as Immorality in Law
The relationship between bad logic and immorality becomes much more overt in the field of law. In particular, when lawyers, judges and lawmakers make logical errors, the results are quite immediate and dramatic: People lose their rights, their freedom, and sometimes even their lives simply because a particular judge, for instance, cannot logically apply the law. Oftentimes, this bad logic is preserved for all to see in a judicial opinion.
The Harm Is the Same
If one’s irrationality hurts no one, maybe its not a big deal. But when someone suffers actual harm as a direct result of another’s poor reasoning skills, the latter’s rational failure is, to me, immoral, perhaps as immoral as any failure arising out of a personality trait.
Mr. Harrison is the author of Plutonomics, A Unified Theory of Wealth (epoet.com).
