BUILDING A LOGICAL MIND---Episode 2

LOGIC IS THE FORMAL NAME OF THE SCIENCE THAT ATTEMPTS TO REDUCE THE PROCESSES OF CORRECT THINKING TO RULES 



                               PROPAGANDA vs. REASON 

   In Mein Kampf, Adolph Hitler demonstrated his complete understanding that one can manipulate an audience by appealing to its emotions and prejudices. He explained that he learned from an early age that the proper employment of propaganda is a real art. He didn't believe that considerations of humaneness and beauty counted in the battle, and that neither could they be used as standards to judge propaganda. In his experience, all propaganda must be popular in tone, and must keep its intellectual level to the capacity of the least intelligent among those at whom it is directed. Hitler was convinced that propaganda can always succeed because most people let emotions and feelings rather than sober consideration determine their thought and action. 

   Now, contrast that defense of propaganda, with this defense of using reasoning, not propaganda, to influence belief and behavior : 

     Because he believes the proper way to influence others is to bring those persons to see for themselves te rightness or the justness of the claims he presents, the advocate who chooses argument as his instrument treats his readers or listeners not as things to be manipulated, but as persons to be reasoned with, as responsible, rational beings whose judgment deserves respect and whose integrity must be honored. Modes of persuasive appeal which seek to circumvent or benumb the understanding are disrespectful of the individuals addressed ; they degrade the listeners or readers by endeavoring to produce the automatic, instinctive sort of response characteristic of animals, rather than the considered, judgmental sort of response humans alone are capable of making.  Argument, in contrast, is respectful of people and those distinctive qualities of reason, understanding, and reflection which mark them off as "human." Instead of addressing the biological individual,it addresses the person as thinker. 
    
                           Watch For An Important Contrast
                           That This Commentator Makes 

     Humanity is something we gain for ourselves only insofar as we willingly grant it to those about us. The more skilled we become in the use of emotion, prejudice, or suggestions as instruments of persuasion, the farther we depart from the ideals which ought to govern our relations with our fellows.