Order Up! Modus Ponens. Over Easy.

I’m reading a book entitled The Self-Driven Child.

I got interested through this article and by being a parent.

The beginning of the book is about the brain and having taught Psych 101 much of this was review.

But then, suddenly, one little idea…

When someone is depressed, logic is impaired.

Logic? Impaired?

The logician in me will order the modus ponens this way:

If one is depressed, then one’s logic is impaired.

Not too surprising, right?

The brain is an organ and requires the right mixture of chemicals and elements to think logically or to do logic. Even logic like which way is right and which way is left, let alone something like advanced quantification calculus. Depression affects the balance of chemicals.

But…

Could we order the modus ponens the other way?

If logic is impaired, then one is depressed.

No.

There could be other factors (antecedents), conditions that necessitate depression and logic impairment isn’t one of them.

Now consider this question and logic:

How logical is it to believe in an afterlife?

That you will continue to be when the organ that organizes/synthesizes your thoughts and your personality (consider that I recently came to learn about a man who was struck by lightning, but lived to tell about it, and how his doctor’s warned him that he will see personality changes) will decompose like other material entities.

Can we say that any person x that believes in an afterlife has impaired logic?

Which goes first?

If one believes in an afterlife, then logic is impaired.

If logic is impaired, then one believes in an afterlife.