Is it Possible to Find the Correlation Between Politics and Logic?

Abstract

The article has the goal to demonstrate on historical ground the possibility of correlation between logical and mathematical knowledge, and political ideas dominating in society. We posit that this kind of dependence is especially evident in the case of the historical development of Russia and the USSR. The article substantiates that, since antiquity, when the rudiments of democratic traditions of discussing important issues of life in polis-cities were laid, and during the period conditionally called the New Age, when synthetic and analytical programs competed in mathematics, one common trait may be observed. This trait has been contemplated since the first half of the twentieth century and up to the present: political doctrines have had and are having a more or less visible impact on the state of logico-mathematical knowledge as a whole and on logical education in particular. At the same time, the attention of administrative structures towards logico-mathematical knowledge and especially logical education can somewhat reduce the level of ideological influence on society, increasing the degree of rationality spilled in it. The hypothesis is put forward that there is some kind of correlation between the attitude of the state to logical and mathematical disciplines and the status of logical education in Russian history, and the possibility of transforming its dominant political attitudes. This correlation is expressed in the fact that the expansion of the areal of logical education is a type of indicator of the possibility of Russian society's transit in the direction of reforms that could reduce the functional principles of conservatism within it. The explanation of this dependence is offered through the lenses of the latest data from the field of neuroscience. Modern neuroscience indicates that the analytical mode of reasoning, which is formed in the process of logical education, reduces the degree of “beliefs” that play an important role in any ideological doctrine, and allows a more objective assessment of the validity of conclusions that are produced by political actors.