This paper purports to show how culture and logic can benefit from and complement each other in contemporary terms. It will delve on how the scientific approach of logic and the artistic approach of orature can bridge the gap between the trained logicians aid the illiterate village communities for their mutual benefit. It intends to show that logic and orature do share some methodological characteristics, that orature can inject new innovations in the present scientific approach of logic.
Logic has hitherto been described as a science--the science of arguments. The main reason for meriting this description is logics function or working is based on rules and laws.
For the sake of standard, objectivity and clarity in reasoning, logic has reached indubitable proportions and has won itself international acceptance. In this respect logic earns unchallenged repute in the arena of the literates.
However, taking the entire world population, the majority of the populace are illiterate. This is a characteristic of some of the third world. This fact creates a big imbalance between the literate and the illiterate communities.
ln order to standardize language as is evident in the syllogisms one at least requires two language skills; the skills of reading and writing. These are wanting in the majority of the world populace.
To compound the problem, not everyone can handle the discipline of logic. Logic being a science--as it is mainly viewed--in order for one to put logic to fruitful and profitable use, one needs a thorough training in order to equip oneself with the rules and laws upon which logic bases its function.
Given this fact, the biggest number of people--the illiterate--is deprived of the opportunity to benefit from this discipline.
With the absence of literacy skills in the biggest part of the world means that the smaller literate part of the world cannot benefit from this large bulk of the illiterate world and vice-versa?
Subjected to this unfortunate imbalance, the literate minority should initiate to explore what the majority illiterate world can offer to the discipline.
(The approach should parallel that used by the developed industrial countries which to some extent lacked industrial raw materials. They used their technical skills and expertise to extract raw materials from the developing third world).
However, this approach should not lead to a situation where the developed community has continued to take a lion's share while the under-developed continued to be impoverished. It should lead to mutual intellectual benefit between the literate and the illiterate communities.
While the literate world is well versed in the literacy skills, the illiterate world on the other hand is well versed in the oracy skills.
It was earlier stated that logic is a science of arguments. In this respect a layman may ask, "what sort of arguments"? A logician will answer, "all arguments." Taking the layman's side, indeed, what sort of arguments do we find in the day to day life? In order to answer this question, one has to look at these two societies, the minority literate society and the majority illiterate society.
The sort of arguments characteristic of the former are mainly concerned with politics, economic speculation, urban life and everything that goes with modernity, while those in the latter are mainly based on cultural heritage and its survival especially when it is threatened by the onslaught of the superficialities of technological innovations.
A contemporary pragmatist says that "something should be accepted if it leads to tangible and verifiable results."2 Similarly, a logician says that something should be accepted if it has a strong cogent base to support it. In this respect, logic that is professed by the literate society is based on the acquired rules and laws. This makes logic purely scientific.
At this juncture, I wish to contend that in addition to the scientific nature of logic it should equally be regarded as an art. This contention is based on the fact implied by the pragmatist and logician that something should merit acceptance if it has a practical value or a strong cogent basis to support it.
I wish to point out that cultural aspects do have practical values and cogent objectives. At this point logical and cultural approaches differ in a sense that the former is mainly scientific and the latter is mainly artistic. This difference need not be overemphasized. Instead it should be the common aspect between the two approaches that should be of interest. Both are practical and have cogent objectives.
The literacy and the oracy skills should be blended to give logic a new appearance, the semi-scientific and semi-artistic outlook. lt is my conviction that if this approach is adopted the literate and the illiterate worlds will mutually benefit from the discipline of logic.
While logic uses premises to support a conclusion, members of the illiterate culture use oral expression either as premises or conclusions. While logic uses rules and laws to structure cogent arguments, the illiterate community uses language structural arrangement to give impact to the intended message or objective. This structural arrangement is not necessarily scientific, but largely artistic. As shall be explicated later, this structural arrangement is largely logical; hence the need for logic to adopt itself to this artistic approach.
Needless to mention, some members of the illiterate community, especially the elderly group are living libraries. However, the life span of these libraries is short because sooner or later the entire generation will die. Taking this fact into account, how many libraries does the world bury everyday?
It is high time that logicians cease to look at logic as nothing more than a compendium of rules and laws; they should look at the artistic aspect of culture instead. Traditional orature--oral literature--uses emotional appeal as a weapon in delivering messages and in achieving objectives. This area, unfortunately, is greatly neglected by logic. Logic has little room if any for emotional approach.
However, authentic study and exploration into the depths of logic, has shown that bad arguments--which can mislead society--can be consciously or unconsciously made when one is using carefully selected content words. In this regard, the authenticity of logic should not be based on whether the approach is scientific or artistic, but on whether it convincingly serves the intended purpose or leads to the achievement of the set objective.
With this background in mind, I wish to explore in detail a specific piece of Kinyankore orature--the Kinyankore proverbial language--one of the venues through which the Banyankore explicate their cultural heritage. In the exposition of these proverbial structures efforts will be made to expose some aspects of formal logic embedded therein and to show how logic can benefit from the artistic approach of the illiterate world.
There are many aspects of orature in any community which can expose the logical and cultural heritage of that community. For the purpose of this paper I have decided to choose the proverbial structures. The main reason is that the approach I am using is new to the majority of logicians and non-logicians.
This fact has necessitated the selecting of an area which is terse and compendius. This has been done in order to avoid misinterpretation and for the easy following of the discussion.
Before I explore the structural harmony between logic and the proverbial structure, let me give the systematic nature and orderliness in which Kinyankore proverbs were coined.
The illiterate community is concerned with a well spoken word and they probably have no time for the written word. Hence, they are concerned with the logicality of the spoken word. The authenticity and rationality in the exposition of their logical and cultural heritage is by the tongue rather than the pen. So, the illiterate Banyankore took their time to organize the oral channel into different sections. For instance, proverbs, riddles, sayings, songs, to mention a few, do serve as a demonstration of this fact.
Additionally, these major sections are again subdivided according to the function they serve. For instance, the section of proverbs is subdivided into proverbs on moral cohesion, the inevitability of the communality of work, marriage institutions, the institution of justice, wisdom on cultural matters and others. These subdivisions are clear in the elder's minds and are appropriately quoted during serious conversations, in teaching the youths about their roles in cultural matters, in settling disputes and during public festivities such as weddings.
From this exposition, it is evident that the Banyankore use the system of classification when portraying their cultural heritage. Though due to illiteracy, this classification is not realized on paper, it is tantamount to the approach of logic of the use of rules and laws. For instance, in like manner, logic classifies certain arguments according to the Modus ponendo ponens (MPP), Modus tollendo tollens (MTT), syllogisms and theorems. It is clear that the system of classification and that of using rules and laws is a shared formal characteristic between cultural orature and logic.
Again orature and logic have something in common as regards informal fallacies in reasoning. In terms of logic informal fallacies are mainly committed due to the misuse of words or drawing irrelevant conclusions from what the premises are contending.
The proverbial structures also do take care of informal fallacies. However, the fallacy does not lie in the language structure itself but in the meaning portrayed by the structure. For instance, there are proverbs focused on hypocrisy, such as:
"Omukazi ayisire omwana wa mukaiba akiza nyina omwana jurira"
"A woman who has killed her co-wife's child cries louder than the mother of the child."
It is evident that the fault does not lie in the structure itself but in the portrayed meaning. The louder cry intended to demonstrate deep pain and loss is not actually genuine but a false coverup of the guilt.
There are proverbs focused on chatterboxes, such as:
"Engamba yabyingi tegira ogu ehikiriza"
"One who talks much about the success of an enterprise never actualizes it."
Again it is not the structure that is faulty but it is merely reflecting the fault in the message. The message is a warning that one should not be duped by a chatterbox. All he does is talk and no action.
There are numerous examples of proverbs about lying, slandering, pretending, deceiving, flattering, gossiping and others.
In terms of logic, proverbs in these examples are playing a quadruple function: they expose the faults so that people become aware of the faults of language; they assist people not only to be victims of the faults when committed by others, but not to commit these faults themselves; they provide moral lessons and serve as a challenge to make people think carefully and evaluate what they hear before accepting them. Precisely that is what logic advocates.
Kinyankore orature can be structured into mediate and immediate inferences. For instance long prose structures like folk tales and songs can be structured into syllogisms; hence, harmonizing with the mediate inference standards, while riddles can be harmonized with the immediate inference standard.
"Otari nyoko takureeba hand"
"One who is not your mother never looks at your abdomen."
This proverb is of a literal and a metaphorical nature. The literal nature is that one who is not your mother never bothers to feed you. The metaphorical nature is that one should be a man therefore self reliant. The former is scientific while the latter is artistic. In both cases the premises can be drawn back from experience.
Due to the fact that the premises which support the proverbs are less exact, proverbs do harmonize with the logic of induction.
Needless to say, there is a lot that proverbs in particular and orature in general share with logic, a proof that the majority in the illiterate world have a lot to offer to the minority in the literate world.
In this paper I have given examples picked from Ankore because this is my cultural base but I am convinced that different cultures in the third world, if sufficiently explored would have a lot to offer, hence, the need for researches in these cultures.
I hasten to add that the proverbial structures and the proverbial language, though coined generations back, are modernistic and innovative in nature. This is because they challenge the audience to think systematically while establishing the premises to the proverb; hence linking the past with the present. In this respect the past experiences are inevitably kept alive.
Another dimension that gives the proverbial language a modernistic appearance is the fact that even the context in which the proverb is quoted can serve as a premise to consolidate the proverb itself. For instance, a proverb on justice will be quoted in the traditional judiciary context when judging the offence committed in the present.
With reasonable amount of confidence, one can say that the proverbial language serves the logical analytical approach. It is a handy weapon that is used to make an individual stop and think twice before acting or continuing with his ways. In such a situation an individual is reminded to make a thorough examination of whatever he has been engaged in or is intending to do.
I wish to end this paper with a comment on observation made by some renowned logicians. S. Haack says that:
The traditional idea that logic is concerned with the validity of arguments as such irrespective . . . of their subject matter . . . could be thought to offer a principle on which to delimit the scope of logic.3
This quotation serves as proof to my contention that in addition to the scientific approach which has hitherto characterized logic there is need for logic to focus on the artistic procedures as is exemplified in orature. We have soon that orature can serve as a very effective channel through which logic can tap the wisdom from the illiterate elders. Orature has as its subject matter the cultural heritage. The cultural heritage has some immortal values which have penetrated into the contemporary life. S.J. Joyce says that: "Logic is the theory of correct thinking."4
Traditionally, the primary function of the proverbs is to make people think deeply in order to harmonize the proverb with its meaning. In order for one to succeed in this venture one had to think correctly. This is another added similarity between logic and orature. A proverb was meant to test whether one had the mental capacity to correctly associate the context of the proverb with its meaning. This involved correct thought. Copi says that:
Language is the armory of the human mind; and at once contains the trophies of its post, and the weapons of its future conquests.5
This quotation proves the harmony between orature and logic. It provides the thread that weaves together the cultural heritage as manifested through orature and the contemporary scientific approach as manifested by logic.
Generally, I wish to reiterate that the illiterate cultural elite who form the majority of the world populace have a lot to offer to the minority literate elite. The challenge is therefore thrown to this minority elite to use their enlightenment privilege to extract this cultural treasure for the balance and intellectual betterment of the two.
We have seen that there is a lot that logic shares with the cultural heritage, so in addition to its scientific approach logic should rigorously take up the artistic approach, a channel that will enable it to appreciate fully what orature can offer to enrich it.
Finally, it has been discovered that orature perpetually revives the cultural heritage, and keeps its candle burning. This makes the cultural approach modernistic and innovative. Logicians should not allow this candle to be extinguished. From this one, more candles should be lit in all corners of the world to provide light to the entire globe.
Makerere University, Uganda
1. Kinyankore Orature: (a) "Kiayankore" is a language of the people called Banyankore. (b) "Banyankore" is one of the tribes in Western Uganda. (c) "Uganda" is a country found in East Africa. (d) Orature refers to the skills of listening and speaking.
2. A. Stroll & R.H. Popkin, Introduction to Philosophy (New York: H.R.W., 1979), p. 415.
3. H. Susan, Philosophy of Logics (London: C.H.P., 1978), p. 5.
4. S.J. Joyce, Principles of Logic (London: Longmans, 1936), p. 8.
5. J.W. Copi, Introduction to Logic (New York: Macmillan, 1978), p. 80.