Dialectical logic must eliminate all remaining traces of deductive systems

Evidence

The only logic admitted by the Greeks was deductive, and all deduction had to start, like Euclid, from general principles regarded as self-evident. Timon denied the possibility of finding such principles. Everything, therefore, will have to be proved by means of something else, and all argument will be either circular or an endless chain hanging from nothing. In either case nothing can be proved. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 963 (#expands, via linked claim)

The contemporary mathematical and symbolic logic is certainly very different from its classical predecessor, but they share the radical opposition to dialectical logic. In terms of this opposition, the old and the new formal logic express the same mode of thought. It is purged from that “negative” which loomed so large at the origins of logic and of philosophic thought—the experience of the denying, deceptive, falsifying power of the established reality. And with the elimination of this experience, the conceptual effort to sustain the tension between “is” and “ought,” and to subvert the established universe of discourse in the name of its own truth is likewise eliminated from all thought which is to be objective, exact, and scientific. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 531 (#expands, via linked claim)

Under the rule of formal logic, the notion of the conflict between essence and appearance is expendable if not meaningless; the material content is neutralized; the principle of identity is separated from the principle of contradiction (contradictions are the fault of incorrect thinking); final causes are removed from the logical order. Well defined in their scope and function, concepts become instruments of prediction and control. Formal logic is thus the first step on the long road to scientific thought—the first step only, for a much higher degree of abstraction and mathematization is still required to adjust the modes of thought to technological rationality. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 525 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Deductive proof must rely on circular reasoning or endless chains — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 963; Formal logic neutralizes contradiction and serves prediction and control — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 525; Formal logic purges the negative, is-ought tension from thought. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 531 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Deductive proof must rely on circular reasoning or endless chains #expands (0.80) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 963
• Formal logic neutralizes contradiction and serves prediction and control #expands (0.78) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 525
• Formal logic purges the negative, is-ought tension from thought. #expands (0.78) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 531
• Thinking must hold dialectic and its opposite together at once #complicates (0.72) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 170