The established, institutionalized
set of beliefs about
logic that dominate Western reasoningâthe often-unexamined assumptions about what counts as logical, which logical systems are valid, and how
logic should be applied. Logical orthodoxy includes specific commitments: that classical
logic (with its laws of non-contradiction, excluded middle, and deduction) is the correct
logic, that formal
logic is superior to informal reasoning, that logical validity is the standard for argument, that contradictions are always errors, that
logic is universal and culture-independent. Like all orthodoxies, it provides a framework for evaluating reasoning, but it functions as ideology when it becomes dogmaticâmaking a particular logical system seem like the only logical system, obscuring how
logic varies across cultures and contexts (Buddhist logic, indigenous logic, paraconsistent logic), and delegitimizing alternative reasoning practices. Logical orthodoxy determines what arguments are considered "valid," what reasoning is "sound," and who counts as "logical" versus "illogical."
Example: "He dismissed Buddhist
logic as 'just irrational' because it tolerated contradictionsânot because he'd examined different logical systems, but because logical orthodoxy had made classical
logic feel like
Logic itself. The orthodoxy's power is making one system of reasoning feel like the only way to reason."