Ep.93 Truth Over Noise: Exploring Knowledge, Logic, and Truth

Join the GSD crew in this special episode of the Programming Lions Podcast as they dive into the fundamentals of epistemology, the laws of logic, and the ways we discern truth. The discussion covers the creation of knowledge through logic, the three foundational laws of logic, and different methods of acquiring knowledge including rationalism, empiricism, and revelation. Tune in for an insightful journey into understanding how we determine what is true, good, and right.

TIMELINE
00:00 Intro
00:29 The Journey of Learning: What is True?
01:09 Understanding Logic
05:39 The Three Laws of Logic
11:06 Knowledge and Epistemology
16:18 How to Determine Truth
21:27 Final Thoughts

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the Programming Lions Podcast. Today we have a special episode for you. It's just gonna be the GSD crew, the three of us talking about importance of knowledge, logic, and truth. Epistemology the laws of logic and how we can discern what is true, good and right. So let's get into it.

Logic-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_285ms-StreamYard: 0:29

Alright, boys, we wanna do an interesting topic today on a journey of learning and what more important to learn about than what is true in life. What do you think I, and how do we know what is true? We have to have knowledge, right? Yes. And how do we get knowledge? We use logic. So today, on this little session, we are gonna dig into. Those kind of three aspects philosophically and try to understand a little bit better about how we get to the truth. And so a great way to start is like, how do we create knowledge, which is through logic, right guys? Yes. Does that make sense to you? So let's just do some simple searches. I'll pull'em up on my phone and I wanna run this by you so that we can all kinda learn together in terms of what makes logic logical. Right. And what let me be before I go through the definition of logic, what do you think logic is? Well, logic typically is I. A true statement, which is generally accepted as the correct thing to do or the correct option. Maybe a little correction would be like logic is how you get there. Meaning are you going about it in a rational way? Do you have a method to. Determine if you're being logical. Yeah. Well, to determine if that's true. You do have to kinda like the scientific method. Right? Okay. Yeah. Make sure it's true. Yeah, that's good. That's kind of what I meant. Max, how about you? What do you think? Well I kind of think logic is basically like a knowledge kind of-ish. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. I don't know, like the exact definition. Um hmm. Well, I feel like logic is kind of like, something that, you know, or like logic is something that you believe in okay. Okay. Might be more talking about knowledge, like what you know, and then there's a question of like, well, how do you know what you know? Like, how do you know by proving it? How do you know what you know is true? Right, max? Yeah. So how do you know by proving it? Okay. Like what Will said, like how do you know that two plus two equals four? Is that true? Is that true? Because other people have proved it. Okay. Have you proved it? Yes. How did you prove it? So first you go like this two, and then you have two of your fingers, okay? You add these together and then you count 1, 2, 3, 4. Right. Why that? So you basically use a scientific method to come up with or mathematics to come up with that until you attempted it and you've made a hypothesis and an experiment and then you're able to repeat it? Yes. Like every time you add two and two together, you get four. Right. Every single time. Mm-hmm. As far as we know, yeah. Yeah. All right, so let me read out logic, okay. Is really, it's the study of correct reasoning. And by reasoning we mean like how you methodically try to understand something, right? And, and so it helps you distinguish good arguments from bad ones. We have a lot of arguments with people. Oh my gosh. If you've ever seen in the comment section, and so this is why logic is important, because you want to be able to use logical arguments versus illogical ones. Now we see a lot of people that either through our live sessions or on our chats, we'll have, what do you think logical arguments or illogical argu arguments? Well, typically they're. Illogical, and then you go into the comments, or if they're saying it on like a live thing or something. Or maybe if it's a big enough thing that enough people are saying, we'll just cover it in a video. Yeah. And we'll totally disprove them right. By proving that it's wrong. What, what is one way, do you think that a lot of people fail in logic? Like maybe they get emotional. Oh, I have an idea. Typically, yes, they may get emotional, or what they could also do is just learn stuff from the internet and just say, oh, this is logical. Yes. So now this is logical without having, without even thinking about it at all. Or having Right. Or even looking into it. That's a good one. That's a good one. Yeah. That's actually a lot of people nowadays. Mm-hmm. All they see is just stuff on the internet, and then they're just like, Hmm, I believe in what this. Guy said, yeah, I have no idea who is. And he never has any factual evidence to prove it. Or you heard from a friend that something happened, right. So like if a friend at school tells you that the earth is flat, are you gonna believe them? No. Yeah. No, I'm kidding. Okay. And of course we won't. Yeah, you would go and do some research and see like, is that true? Are there multiple sources that say the earth is flat or is it just my buddy at school? So you would want to test that out, but let me go a little bit further. So. Logic is about thinking clearly and consistently. Yes. Okay. Yeah, it is usually foundational to philosophy, science and mathematics, perhaps theology, right? Yes. Yeah, of course. So there are three laws of logic. What do you think those might be? I feel like one of them has to do with time. I. Or like it has to be tested with time or something. Tested. Yeah. Yeah. Tested. Mm-hmm. I honestly have no clue. That's like, well, let me go through'em. Lemme go through'em here. Three laws. Okay. Yeah, there's three laws of logic. This is important for you guys because as you get into more dialogue with people, I. Whatever you do, whether it's at work or school or if you're debating somebody about a topic these are important laws to know about logic. The three laws of logic. The first law is the law of identity. You get to identify yourself. Yeah. You get to self-identify. No, it's not about self-identity. It's a thing is what it is. That's what the law of identity is. Meaning if you're a rock, you're a rock. Yeah. Like the letter A is the letter A. The letter A is not the letter B. Yeah. Right. Or if you see a tree, it's a tree. A tree has a specific nature and identity and so that tree is a tree and it will always be that tree. Another idea might be is a cat, a dog? No now, but a cat or a dog has a tail and it wags and it sometimes makes like a whiny sound just like a cat. But is a, is a dog ever a cat? No, no, no. So a, a dog is a dog and it has an identity and in fact that that specific dog has a specific identity. And so it will always be that thing, right? So there's a law of identity that is the first law of logic. Does that make sense? Yeah, that makes sense. A thing is a thing. Yep. Right? Mm-hmm. Okay. Obviously people don't get that. I am a girl. Well, yes. You could use this in maybe an argument or a rebuttal with certain groups that think identity is fluid. Yeah. Logic. Yeah. Anyway, so that is the first law of logic. The second law of logic is the law of non-contradiction. What So that, what does that mean? Yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll tell you. So that means that a statement cannot be both true and false at the same time or in the same sense. So what I would say is like a car is red. Yeah. It cannot be not red unless if you're colorblind. If a car, if a car is red, is it not red? It's always red as long as you can't tell if it's red, but it's always red. So the, the law of logic would say that it cannot contradict itself. So it, it has to be it can't be true in both of these contexts. Right? Yeah. So your logic can't contradict itself by two things being true at once. But what if you color blind?'cause then it's a whole different story. Well, that's, that is a whole different story. The next, the thing is though, the car is still red, just you cannot. You might not be able to see it. Get your eyes at it's actually red, maybe sees a blue. You might not be able to see that it's Red Max. But it is still red. And so we can get back into that in terms of like, how do you know it's red? Well, there are ways you could probably validate that through. Maybe enough people see that car and tell you that it's red and you trust them because they're trustworthy sources. But if you just had like. One buddy say it's blue and he's li you know, so if you have enough consensus, maybe then you can determine that that car is red. But by the law of non-contradiction, it would never be not red. Then if it was painted, well then it would be that other color, but it would never be not that color. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. It's kind of a tricky one. Now, there's also the law of the excluded middle, so. This means a statement is either true or false, but there is no third or middle option. Yeah. Okay. So an example would be either true or it's false if, if it is snowing. Okay. Is it true or false that it is snowing? True because it's snowing. If it's snowing, it would be true. That snows here. Right. But it, it's either snowing or it is not snowing. It's not like kind of snowing. Right. It's still snowing unless it's like due or do not, there is no try. Yes, exactly. So that would be, that, that means there's no middle. In terms of a strict logic, there's no middle. It it? Mm-hmm. It either is or it isn't. Exactly. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So these things matter because they underpin rational thought, debate, science, and a systematic thinking method. Okay. Okay. All right. Those are big words. Yeah, I understand. But anyway, that's logic. So when you, when you wanna logically set out an argument, you can think about like. If you're trying to define something as this thing, then you should be able to defend that it is that thing in all cases, and it cannot be this other thing. Okay? Whether it be your argument or your defense or your descriptor, does that make sense? Kind of. That makes complicated, it makes sense. There are big words in it, which may make it stink. Complicated. Yeah. But if you simplify it, it's actually not that complicated, like truth is truth. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Okay, so now let's move on to knowledge. There's a word called epistemology, so if you ever hear this word epistemology, it is essentially the philosophy concerned with the validity of knowledge. So it's a study of knowledge. So you'll see philosophers, and sometimes you'll hear people refer to epistemology, but it's the study of knowledge, like how do you know something? Mm-hmm. Does that make sense? So, we'll, we'll stick to the word knowledge because that's a little bit easier to digest. So epistemology, there's a few ways that knowledge can be acquired. Okay. The first is rationalism, which is through reason and. Logic. Logic. Yep. Okay. So we can know something through reason and logic. A good example would be math. Does that mean logic needs knowledge? So that means knowledge. Knowledge needs logic. Logic. Go ahead, max. Wait. So does that mean logic needs knowledge?'cause knowledge needs logic. So then it's like. Well, maybe to some extent yes. I suppose you have to, to, to apply logic, you have to have some knowledge of like what isn't, what is not maybe or a grasp on identity. But you would need, I. By definition, you would need logic to know something or that's, that's one way you could know it through rational thought, which is logic based thought. Does that make, does that make sense? Yeah. So you could know something using logic or rational thought. Mm-hmm. And we like to think of ourselves generally as rational thought people here. I agree. Okay. But then the comms are gonna come after us, be like, you guys are not rational thought. Yes, yes. Or whatever. Now there's also empiricism, meaning what the Yeah. Science. So you could, through scientific studies. So there's logic which is very much like, like is or is not based math. You can think of logic as like math or identity based information or rational thought. It's guaranteed. And then empiricism would be more like science. So for example. You have a hypothesis. You think that you want to test a theory, you test that theory, and then you get the same results over and over again. And so because you get the same results, you might assume that that is a. If that is true or that is knowledge now because you've, you've been able to take that hypothesis, test it. Maybe you've tested it in different conditions and you've got the same outcome. So you could say that, well, now I know that this is true. Every time I do x, y happens. And so that would be an empirical way. Yeah. To get knowledge. Yeah. Does that make sense, max? That makes sense to me. Okay. Yeah. Knowledge is tricky. Yeah. That it's smart. Now here, here's another one that's kind of interesting. Revelation. And so this is particularly interesting for religious context through Divine disclosure. So we could say that through Revelation we know something because maybe it was a. It was divinely given to us in the Bible or through God. And other people with different faiths might think of that in slightly different ways. But divine revelation is a term that you've heard, right? Mm-hmm. And that is knowing something through Revelation is through a belief or a faith. Yeah. Does that make sense? Meaning then, but none of those can be guaranteed truth though, right? Because like there's multiple. Different ones of them. That's the tricky part about Revelation, is that it isn't backed in empiricism or rational logic. Right. And so you could say that you can, you can't prove it, but you might also not be able to disprove it. Mm. So like when you think about religion, oftentimes you might have people say, well, how can you prove to me that God exists? But you can also say, well, prove to me that he doesn't exist. And so both of those things are kind of, true at the same time. And so that's where revelation comes in in terms of faith. So typically in arguments with people who are not of that faith or not religious, you're gonna have a better opportunity of convincing somebody of something using empiricism or rationalism, meaning science or, or mathematic logic. Does that make sense? Yeah. So if you're arguing with somebody who's not religious, you're gonna have a hard time convincing them that God told you to do something. Oh. Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. So this is kind of, you know, look, this is kind of complicated stuff, but it's, it's important because it helps underpin your ideas in terms of how you communicate, especially if you're trying to convince somebody of something. Okay. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Alright. So now that we've gone through some of the technical aspects of logic, knowledge, epistemology, rationalism, empiricism, revelation, divine revelation, perhaps, how can you truly know something is true? Truly know something is true. How do you know something is true? Well, you a little bit of research on this. Well, because this is what's important, is like how can we know something is true? If we know something is true, then that's really cool, like I actually did some research on this. Okay, let's hear it right here. Number one. This is on Google. Okay. So number one is source credibility. Source credibility, okay. Right. So if you have somebody, so Fox News. Yeah. If you have somebody that like is Sure. If you have somebody that is trusted and that has a very good reputation at telling the truth Yes. Then they have a better chance of probably telling the truth to you, right? Right. That's right. The second is cross-referencing and fact-checking. Right. That's good. Like to make sure that something is correct. Mm-hmm. The third is evaluating the evidence. Mm-hmm. To make sure that something is correct also. So those two kind of go in the same thing. Yep. And then identifying a bias. Okay. So if there's a bias in something, you know that they're probably not telling the truth. They may tell the truth, but it prob it may be a little bit more biased toward one thing than the other. Right. So it has a better chance of not being true. That's right. That's wanna people able be bias's, right? Yeah. Yeah. Bias is pretty important.'cause sometimes you might want something to be true and so you might actually find studies or information that just confirm what you want to be true. Right? Exactly. Yeah. So you gotta be careful of that and try to take your own biases out of decisions when you're searching for truth. And that can be hard, but it's important. Those are good. So can you go over those one more time, max? And I want you to absorb this. We're talking, this is the truth. This is the truth zone. I'm gonna combine two and three for this thing. Let's do it. Number one is having a good author or a good source that is trustworthy. What's a trustworthy source to you? Donald Trump. A Tru Donald Trump untrustworthy source is somebody who has typically, or to me at least, has told the truth multiple times other time. Yeah, like me. And is typically known for telling the truth, kind of. Okay. Right. Who in your life do you think tells you the truth? A lot. You. Oh. Oh. Maybe like if we're doing something stupid, you'll tell that to me straight in front of my face. Yes. Which isn't actually that bad of a thing. It's my job. Number two and three are basically evaluating evidence and checking things to make sure that it is true Math one plus two equals X. Mm-hmm. What X is three What? So you could, you could run an experiment and if it repeats itself, that's one way. That's correct. And then credible sources. I like that. Okay. And then the last thing is evaluating bias. Mm-hmm. Bias. So if there's any biasness. That means that they are probably not telling the truth. They have a less chance of telling the truth. That they're more biased toward one thing or another. Yeah.'cause then that means that they're not searching for the exact truth. They're looking, they. For truth and to benefit them. Let me ask you this. Will, this might be an example of bias. Are you good at Fortnite? Yes. No. Much better than him. He sucks. How? I, no. So how do I know what's true here? You, me. I'm a very credible source. Aren't so you both think, you both think that you're better. I play more video games. I know you do that. That that's, now that's a true, that is a credible'cause I've witnessed it with my own eyes. That is a credible source because I know Max plays more video games. Mm-hmm. So that's a good, I'll, I'll find a clip of me, but how do I know I'll find a video. What is true in terms of is, will a good Fortnite player trust, okay, I'll say this. He can, that you trust the. Source credibility. Mm. And I think I'm a very credible source. But you might have some bias in terms of how good you think you are. Yeah. I'm better than him. You're not. Yes I am. No, you're not. Yes, I am. Well, you're not. I'm not biased. This is such true. So one thing I could do is I could watch you guys play, which I, I do often. I actually enjoy watching you play more than playing myself. And I prefer not to actually on second side, and then I can make my own assessment. Right. So now that would be item two on your list of like, I can observe and do my own research essentially to determine what is true based on observing you two play. Right. Yeah. Okay. I won't give the audience any indication of whether I believe that this is true. Can you tell us soft? But this is a, is it's a good example that you can work through in terms of your thinking, how you break things down, uncovering the source, what evidence do you have and is there any bias? And this example included all of those. Yes. Okay, well look, let's put a pin in this topic, but it is fun. I think we're gonna revisit this, and when we do have disputes or try to have good faith arguments with people, these are the types of things that we talk about is can we have a logical argument, a rational argument towards this? Do they have a rational argument in defense of it? And most times not, how do we know and what is true, right? Mm-hmm. So these are some good principles. We'll keep trying to improve our skills. Yes. All right. Subscribe. Thank you. See you later. Thank you, gentlemen. Subscribe, like, and comment. See you later.