The Definition of Thought

Miscellaneous General
1

This is a quote from Dr. Roderick Long’s early draft of “Wittgenstein, Austrian Economics, and the Logic of Action: Praxeological Investigations”

“Logic is constitutive of thought. Nothing counts as thought unless it is logical. Hence the term “thought” is simply not applicable to anything that deviates from logic.”

I have noticed here in the forums that there is at least another mention of this point in reference to Dr. Long’s “Anti-Psychologism in Economics: Wittgenstein and Mises.” Hopefully I can get some help with this.

If logic is constitutive of thought and nothing counts as thought unless it is logical, then what is thought? How does one logically define thought? And for that matter, what is logic?

I was once told by Dr. Long that “logic is the way things are.” Does anyone want to take a swing at explaining what he meant by that statement? If so, then be my guest. I’d love to read the responses.

The statement is also made in his works that “only those transitions [from one thought to another] that obey the laws of logic are to be counted as inferences.” Great! But what of thought itself? How does one explain how logic is constitutive of thought?

It is very likely that I am missing something in his works that explains what I am trying to figure out. If so, then would you be so kind as to show me where he fills this “gap?”

Thanks in advance!

2

You can’t define logic and thought…without using logic and thought. You can’t really answer those question and if you try you’ll get caught in a self-referencing loop.

3

A quick google search of the words “what” and “thought” yields results of websites that refer to a book entitled “What is Thought?” (go figure!) by Eric Baum. Here is a link to a site that talks about this book:

http://www.whatisthought.com/

Here is a one sentence summary of the book according to this website, “meaning is the computational exploitation of the compact underlying structure of the world, and mind is execution of an evolved program, largely encoded in the genome, that is all about meaning.”

I have only taken a few glances at the book and its table of contents thus far, but after having found chapter 10’s sections being divided into two sections entitled “An Economic Model” and “The Hayek Machine,” I am beginning to think that it would be worth my while to pick up a copy of this book. Is there anyone here who has read this book or at least has a background in the topics being presented in it? If so, would you leave a few comments relevant to the topic at hand? Thanks!