LOGIC PRESENTATION

By Joe Tilley
 The Thesis
In our day to day thinking are we as logically
orientated as we would like to believe?
 Logical Beings
As humans we generally tend to attribute
logical as one of our thinking processes.
We also consider logic to be far removed from
emotion and feeling, and rather in a void from
other aspects.
In general people consider themselves as
logical and able to compute things without
being effected by their emotional feelings
towards the subject.
Dr. Muhammad Haneef
The Dr Haneef inquiry is an infamous time in
recent Australian history where an innocent
man was accused of terrorism and held for a
month without charge.
At the time the public gave support to the
actions of the government and believed Haneef
to be guilty of terrorism.
Dr. Muhammad Haneef
“why does it take so long to investigate these
suspects. Even the slightest concern for the
country warrants arrest and deportation”
The investigation cost nearly 8 million dollars
and involved 590 police and other terrorism
officers and the authorities came back empty
handed.
 The Thinking Process
What does this say about our thinking process
involving logic?
The biggest thing here is to acknowledge the
effects of perception, language and emotion.
 Language
The language used from the very beginning in
the media was encouraging a biased view of
Haneef.
“Race To Interview Haneef”
“TERRORISM investigators are in a race
against time as a British police officer rushes to
Australia”
This language immediately creates a bias
towards Haneef.
 Language
Race to interview Haneef
race against time
appeared to have a legitimate reason
person of interest
links to the alleged ringleader of a terrorist cell
links to another man arrested in Britain
Alarm bells rang
Perception
Perception of
terrorism and
stereotyping
Immediately our
ability to logically
assess the information
is biased by our own
and media prejudices
 Emotion
Emotion is possibly the most significant barrier
to our ability to think logically
Because terrorism is such a prevalent concern
in modern western society there is a large fear
base.
Terrorism immediately triggers a fear response
in people and the tendency when this occurs is
to “shoot first, ask questions later”
Coming Back To The Thesis
In our day to day thinking are we as logically
orientated as we would like to believe?
No, we aren’t.
We are very effected by the Ways Of Knowing
and our ability to logically assess the situation
is always going to be impeded by them.
 The Knowledge Issue
The knowledge issue here is that it is
impossible to think using logic as if it is void of
feeling and in a “vacuum”.
Our thinking process and our ability to
logically assess a situation is always affected by
the other filters of knowledge.
 Counter Claim

Although the effects of the different filters of

knowledge are felt on our ability to logically
assess, we may be able to remove the effect of
these factors
The Train Hypothetical
The Hypothetical Train
Almost all people
surveyed said they would
switch the train line so that
only one person died
instead of two.1
Only a third of those who
chose to kill that one man
by switching the train
lines, chose to push the
man in front of the train.

1 - 15 March 2007; 446 (7133): 231 - 346

What This Means To Us
What this means to us is that we must be aware
of the effects of perception, language and
emotion.
The Haneef case now is seen as a big mistake
and has even caused people to consider firing
the leader of the AFP.
To be able to analyze something we must be
aware of the impressions made on us by a
variety of sources.
 Bibliography
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=brain-
damage-makes-utilitarian-decisions-easier
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2
1985,25259932-5000117,00.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/race
-to-interview-
haneef/2007/07/04/1183351295605.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-
pacific/6283058.stm
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/0