A masterwork on "What is Logical Thinking?" has been born. What is logical varies depending on purpose, situation, and culture.

I read Masako Watanabe's "What is Logical Thinking?" (Iwanami Shinsho). It's an amazing book. It was the most impactful book I've read in 2024.

When I hear "logical" or "logical thinking," I often think of the American logical structure of "claim, evidence, conclusion." Like the PREP method, for example.

However, the author says that appropriate logical methods differ depending on the purpose, country, religion, ideology, and situation, and that it is important to use them diversely.

The Relationship Between Composition Education and Logical Thinking in Different Cultures

Even when shown the same four-panel comic, Japanese children grasp the content through chronological order and emotion, while American children begin by describing the conclusion of the incident that angered them.

This logical thinking seems to be influenced by composition education, and behind that is a societal demand.

The author states that being logical "is a feeling that arises from the fact that the necessary elements for the reader's description are arranged in the order the reader expects."

In other words, being logical is built upon social consensus.

Economy, Politics, Legal Technology, Society... Four Types of Logical Thinking

Building on Weber's arguments, the author categorizes types of logical thinking into four main categories: "Economy," "Politics," "Legal Technology," and "Society."

Furthermore, the connection between composition education and differences in logical structure is discussed, with the essay in America (Economy), the dissertation in France (Politics), the ensha in Iran (Legal Technology), and the kan-sō-bun (personal reflection essay) in Japan (Society).

The American "five-paragraph essay" logic, which builds "backward" from the conclusion, can be seen as emerging from the pursuit of maximum profit efficiently within a competitive society (Economy).

The French dissertation requires a Hegelian structure of thesis → antithesis → synthesis, always going through counterarguments, combining them, and ending by posing a new question. This is a social demand to foster citizens who participate in politics within the republic after the French Revolution (Politics).

The Iranian "ensha (literary fragment)" regards the truth of the Quran as unshakeable, seeks beauty in flow and expression, and concludes with proverbs or gratitude to God. The judgment of legal scholars based on Islamic law is not personal but involves applying a vast interpretation of the Quran (Legal Technology).

Japanese kan-sō-bun (personal reflection essays) cultivate a spirit of altruism and empathy, while opinion essays learned from junior high school onwards require incorporating counterarguments to one's own opinions, thereby fostering adjustment with social order. From high school onwards, short essays require expressing perspectives from a different angle to the premise, thus demanding a viewpoint for social reform (Society).

Rhetoric Required in Everyday Life

As the author traces back to the time of Aristotle, logic utilizes deduction, induction, and abduction, but the majority of situations where logic is applied involve rhetoric.

Rhetoric is based on "plausible" reasoning, the opposite of certainty (meaning things that are generally considered true even if not true in all cases).

It's interesting to consider the viewpoint that anger and conflict sometimes arise not from emotional disagreements or differences of opinion, but from fundamentally different logical methods being employed.

*Furthermore, there is the conflict between formal rationality and substantive rationality, as Weber described. The former discusses means without questioning the purpose, while the latter questions the purpose itself.

No logical form is universally applicable. That's why the author recommends using different forms as appropriate.

The author's work, exemplifying evidence based on vast materials and summarizing it in a concise volume, is remarkable.

Personally, it was very interesting as it resonated with one of the themes of the book I'm currently writing, "economic rationality," the issue of "society and the world" in the lineage of Yamamoto Shichihei → Abe Kin'ya → Kougami Hiroshi, and the difference in worldviews between monotheism and polytheism.

Has the Kan-sō-bun Inherited the Philosophy of Seikatsu Tsuzurikata?

The Japanese kan-sō-bun (personal reflection essay) originated from the pre-war "Seikatsu Tsuzurikata" (life writing) movement, led by teacher Keinosuke Ashida. Through life records, it describes what was felt and how things changed over time. While it reflects Zen and Marxist thought, the truthfulness or profundity of the content is not evaluated in seikatsu tsuzurikata. The process is emphasized. Behind this is the idea of cherishing children as natural beings.

Linked to the Seikatsu Tsuzurikata movement is "shasei-bun" (sketch writing). The latter half of Karatani Kōjin's "Origins of Modern Japanese Literature" analyzes the shasei-bun and essays of Masaoka Shiki and Terada Torahiko as a Japanese way of apprehending the world, connected to haikai.

Chanting "aware" (pathos, empathy) in response to the impermanence of the world (society) (where entropy constantly increases and changes) is close to Japanese emotions and shasei-bun (and it is "carnivalesque," a concept that also exists in other countries), and it seems to be a movement seeking ambiguity between the private and public, and intersubjectivity.

In other words, while the "I" has meaning as a device, the "my ego" is not necessarily required.

*There was a story about haiku poet Madoka Mayuzumi, when she taught haiku in France, her students kept trying to insert "je (I)." On the other hand, dissertations have a strict rule against using "I." This is interesting. Indeed, in haiku, "I" is not explicitly stated.

Just as with perspective after Da Vinci and Japanese landscape paintings originating from China, religious beliefs also influence spatial perception. The monotheistic approach of perceiving and reconstructing space based on principles assuming an absolute being differs from the polytheistic Japanese way of capturing an individual's subjective landscape within nature.

*Jun'ichirō Tanizaki also discussed the differences in the logical structures of narratives between "continental and Japanese" stories.

Personally, I also feel that modern "kan-sō-bun" (personal reflection essays) only inherit part of the spirit of "seikatsu tsuzurikata" (life writing). What should be written, rather than "my thoughts," is perhaps more like haiku or shasei-bun: "what has passed through me," that is, about life.

*There was also an aspect where the government perceived that if children in rural areas wrote about the impoverished conditions of their regions, it would become uncontrollable, and so the seikatsu tsuzurikata movement declined in the 1940s.

*That's why I consider shasei-bun and essays to be a very anarchic act, and that's why I believe it would be good if more essayists emerged through DIY BOOKS activities.

In Japan, the concept of maintaining "wa" (harmony) is dominant, which leads to the idea of adjusting the atmosphere, like in "opinion essays." However, this can sometimes lead to an increase in people who go along with the crowd, and carries the risk of encouraging reading the atmosphere and excessive忖度 (sontaku - anticipating and acting upon others' needs or desires).

Are Japanese Logic and the Logic of SNS/Business Often Mismatched?

It seems that the fundamental logic connected to the Japanese landscape and the way systems like politics, meetings, and SNS function are mismatched. Or rather, the problem is that we are not able to switch between logical methods according to the situation, as described in "What is Logical Thinking?".

I believe that X (formerly Twitter) is more popular in Japan than in other countries because its design makes it easy to express "aware" (pathos). However, because it has a拡散機能 (diffusion function), it leads to flame wars and even takes human lives. Such a function is fundamentally unnecessary. It creates wasteful "seken" (narrow-minded, village-like society) and conflict.

Just as Jack Dorsey, who created Twitter, and Chris Wetherell, the engineer who created the retweet function, regret it, diffusion was originally unnecessary. "Shinjuku now" or "Go Go Curry now" would have been fine. But this was created with American economic logic. It's a system that increases impressions and users. However, the Japanese logic of expressing感想 (impressions/thoughts) doesn't match here (or rather, it has become a devilish fusion).

However, if you don't want to use X, you don't have to, as many people are doing now. You can quit SNS. Or move to another SNS. Or you can articulate with a logical method suitable for X (though that's difficult).

In current conflicts of opinion, the first thing needed is a meta-awareness to pause and consider, "Perhaps it's a difference in logical methods themselves." I believe that is what constitutes a mature "society," rather than a village-like "seken."

Acting Skills and Differentiating Logic

Kuruma Takahira of Reiw Roman, who won the 20th M-1 Grand Prix recently, has had his acting skills praised by Magical Lovely Noda and Shimofuri Myojo's Soshina (personally, I also like Ken Mutsui's unique presence as "himself").

Instead of being in situations where the MC often becomes "the subject of the moment," they choose places where they can express themselves easily and act in each situation. This isn't being a people-pleaser or lacking a self; it's like changing their banter, manzai skit, or the structure and performance of their routine.

*Personally, I think Japanese comedy is a treasure trove of highly sophisticated communication attempts.

I believe what's important is "acting ability adapted to the other person." How do you convey what you feel? Do you accept it flatly? Can you offer a different opinion? I think a society that allows for such interactions is good.

It's not a lie just because it's acting; it's a method to bring out the best in oneself and others. I felt that this is quite close to differentiating logical thinking.

Masako Watanabe, "What is Logical Thinking?" (Iwanami Shinsho)

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