Eugenia Cheng is the author of The Art of Logic in an Illogical World.From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: In your new book, you write of today's argumentative world, "Is all hope lost? Are we doomed to take sides, be stuck in echo chambers, never again agree? No." Why do you feel that way?--Marshal Zeringue
A: I feel this way because I almost always feel able to understand and sympathise with people even when I completely disagree with them.
Often when I think about it very logically I can see that we are not fundamentally that different, it's just that small difference in fundamental beliefs develop into big differences in real life, a bit like someone braking on the highway causing a huge tailback hours later. It is hard to prevent the traffic jam but easier to stop someone braking unnecessarily.
Q: How do you define logic?
A: Logic is a process of rigorous deduction, where you start with some statements, and see what definitely has to be true as a result of those statements, not because of tradition, hope, statistics, or past evidence, but by something...[read on]