Logical foundations of literary text editing

2. Linguistic logic and logic of the writer.

3. Formation of logical culture of the editor
4. Basic laws of logic in the aspect of editing: the law of identity, contradiction,
excluded third, sufficient reason.

Logical errors are likely as old as language itself, but they were first recognized and
cataloged by Hindu philosophers, somewhere between the 6th century BC.
They identified five distinct ways that an argument could be logically flawed.

Greek philosopher Aristotle also wrote about logical fallacies. He identified thirteen
fallacies, divided into verbal and material fallacies, in his work Sophistical
Refutations. By Aristotle’s definition, a verbal fallacy is one where the language used
is ambiguous or incorrect, and a material fallacy is an argument that involves faulty
or flawed reasoning.

Today, our understanding of logical fallacies comes from these sources as well as
contributions from later scholars like Richard Whately and Francis Bacon.

Where logical errors could be found?

Logical errorscould be found just about anywhere: you find people debating and
using rhetoric, especially in spaces that aren’t academic or professional in nature. In
fact, we can almost guarantee that you’ve encountered logical errors on social media,
especially in the comments under divisive posts. But keep in mind that they can and
often do appear in academic writing, especially in the kinds of writing where the
author has to defend a position, like argumentative essays and persuasive writing.
They can even show up in expository writing.

Logical errors are not restricted to just one age group, political affiliation, gender,
race, religion, subculture, or other shared characteristic—they are universally
human. Our brains are not perfect, and even smart people can fall prey to making
logically inconsistent statements and arguments. Usually, people make these kinds of
 statements because they haven’t taken the time to think through them logically, not
because they intend to make flawed arguments. But in some cases, the writer or
speaker does intend to make a flawed argument, usually in an attempt to sway
readers’ opinions or make their opposition look worse.

Logical errors are arguments that can not stand up to critical thinking. There is a
defect in their reasoning that renders their conclusions invalid—not credible.

Imagine a politician that says:

 Don’t elect Jones for president. She went to a second-rate college!

Or an advertising campaign for an organic food company that says:

 You let your kids eat non-organic food? You might as well let them smoke
cigarettes.
What do you think? Do the arguments presented stand up to reason?

They may have gotten your attention but, ultimately, each is a distraction, over-
reaction, or misdirection, not a logical argument.

LOGICAL CORRECTNESS OF THE TEXT

To fulfill its purpose, the text material must be correctly constructed from a logical
point of view. The necessary qualities of the text are accuracy, certainty, consistency,
validity. In other words, the text must meet the requirements of the laws of logic.
In addition, the author must be able to correctly determine the volume of concepts,
establish relationships between concepts (logical parts), know the rules of logical
division and apply them in the classification of phenomena.
The logical function of editing is recognized as one of the most important,
determining the intellectual level of this type of activity. Researcher V.I.Svintsov
believes that logical knowledge learned at school and fixed by practice can
successfully "work" as stereotypical skills of behavior and that it is desirable to turn
these skills into stable properties of intelligence, which are manifested with a greater
or lesser degree of automatism. "For the editor, intensification of the working
process is inevitably connected with the training of logical attention, with the
development of productive skills of logical analysis of the text».
The desired result (first of all, obtaining true knowledge), accompanied by a positive
evaluation, depends on a number of conditions, which include the logical correctness
of intellectual operations. If a logical error is allowed in the course of any action, it
does not mean that the relevant law has lost its force. On the contrary, the ability to
distinguish between right and wrong, logical and illogical in thinking is based on
spontaneous or conscious application of the laws of logic.
Modern science distinguishes between dialectical logic (studying the general
regularities of development of the objective world and cognition) and formal logic
(the science of laws and forms of correct thinking). In practical activity it is necessary
to observe both laws. We will consider the laws of formal logic.
The editor should know not only the formulation of the basic laws of logic, but also
imagine the mechanism of logical errors, their fixation in the text, the influence of
errors on the communicative effect and broadly interpret this part of the work on the
material. Logical laws have an independent meaning and act independently of the
will and consciousness of people in any process of cognition. They record the
centuries-old experience of social and productive activity of people.
Law of identity. If a statement is true, it is true. The distinctive feature of logical
thinking is considered to be certainty. A thought is characterized as definite if it has a
clear content, reflects some object with a sufficient degree of accuracy, is equally
understood by both the receiver and the transmitter of the message.
The law of contradiction is formulated as follows: - some judgment and its negation
cannot be true together. Contact, distant, implicit and incomplete contradictions.
The law of the excluded third is directed against inconsistency and contradiction of
our reasoning.
Of two contradictory statements at the same time and in the same respect, one is
necessarily true (the other is false).
The law of sufficient reason can be formulated as follows: If any judgment is
qualified as true, false, probable, then such qualification must have an explicit or
fundamentally reproducible, and at that sufficient, basis.
For media professionals, this aspect of the law of sufficient reason is extremely
important. It is connected with the necessity to take into account various features of
the potential addressee of a message - his general level of training, inclination to
accurate or figurative thinking, logical and analytical abilities, etc.
Law of Identity
It dictates that every thought that is given in a given inference must have the same
definite, stable content when repeated. The subject of conversation (if we really want
to agree on something) in the process of reasoning should not change. It is
inadmissible to freely or unwittingly mix concepts, substitute one concept for
another. Observance of the law of identity is a prerequisite for logically constructed
reasoning, provides the text with such qualities as accuracy and certainty.
The law of identity at first glance seems simple. But in reality the matter is a little
more complicated. In the language there are many synonyms, homonyms,
polysemous words and expressions. Therefore
often there is a danger of identifying different meaning units or, conversely,
distinguishing identical. For example, the existence of synonyms in the language can
lead to misunderstanding between interlocutors. Thus, the linguistic terms
"determinative relations" and "attributive relations" are synonymous, identical. But if
one of the participants of communication does not know this, he can perceive these
concepts as different, not identical, and this breaks the communication, leads to
different understanding of the same thought.
The same may be the case if polysemous words or homonyms are used in speech.
For example, the phrase "Well, thank God, he went away!"(«Ну, слава Богу,
отошел!»
) can be understood in different ways:
1) отошел – удалился от кого- или чего-либо (к удовольствию окружающих),
2) отошел – перестал сердиться,
3) отошел – стал лучше себя чувствовать после приступа какой-либо
болезни,
4) отошел – умер после долгих мучений, и это благо для человека в данной
ситуации.
It is also necessary to take into account the fact that in everyday speech the so-called
fuzzy (ambiguous)concepts are often used, and this sometimes causes mutual
misunderstanding in the process of people's communication. For example, such
concepts as "beautiful man", "tall man" (different people put different content in
these words), "violation of public order" (for example, if the neighbors in the
apartment above start moving the sofa to another corner of the room after midnight -
is it a violation of public order or not?) are blurred.
In other words, the addresser of speech and the addressee (the author and the
reader, the speaker and the listener), correlating different concepts with the same
word, can think about different things. And this is a violation of the law of identity. In
such cases there is a need to eliminate "discrepancies", to clarify the relevant
concepts.
When discussing an issue or entering into a dispute, interlocutors must agree on the
definiteness and unambiguity of the concepts they use.
Violation of the law of identity also occurs if the author departs from the originally
expressed thought and begins to develop another one. This error is often called
displacement of the plan of presentation, or displacement of the logical plan.
For example: Kuzminki. Who does not know this wonderful corner of the Moscow
land? We, agricultural workers, Kuzminki are known as the largest center of
veterinary and zootechnical science (the reader is tuned to the fact that the speech
will be about the sights of Kuzminki, but the author moves to another topic and
begins to talk about Kuzminki as a center of veterinary and zootechnical science).
In reasoning, in the proof this error takes the form of substitution of the thesis, for
example:
In love, as in any other case, there should be first of all a sense of responsibility. To
be a person brought up in this respect - it means to feel responsible. A man - it
sounds proud! (at first the thesis "In love, as in any other business, there should be
first of all a sense of responsibility" is stated, but in the process of reasoning it is
substituted by another one - "A man - it sounds proud!").
The violation of the law of identity is also caused by the piling up of different
thoughts in one paragraph, paragraph or other unit of the text, considered as
something unified in meaning:
The spouses Sergei and Alexandra Sukhanovs came to the dairy farm. Sergey is a
mechanic by education. The spouse became a zootechnician and an accountant. On
the farm operates apparatus type "herringbone". And it is very effective.
Law of contradiction (non-contradiction)
It reads as follows: two opposite thoughts about the same subject, taken at the same
time and in the same relation, cannot be true at the same time.
Observance of this law ensures the consistency of the text. Deviation from this rule
leads to logical contradictions.
For example: The athlete Ivanov has the highest performance. No less high
performance and the athlete Petrov (the first sentence asserts that the highest
performance of one athlete, and the second asserts that the same - i.e., the highest -
performance of another athlete. In fact, the second statement is a negation of the first.
There is a logical contradiction. Consequently, of the two given statements, one is
true and the other is false).
More examples: Early morning. Border guards begin to wake up after night service.
(the contradiction lies in the fact that can not be simultaneously true thoughts that the
border guards slept and at the same time were on night duty).
And now, having retired, the veteran continues to work at the enterprise (either the
veteran continues to work despite his retirement age, or he has retired - these
contradictory thoughts cannot be true at the same time).
Contradictions of the following types are distinguished:
- Contact (members of the contradiction directly contact in the text):
Cotton pants made of woolen fabric (pants cannot be both cotton and woolen at the
same time);
- distant (between contradictory elements of information there is a textual interval of
indefinite length (from several lines to several pages). To detect distant
contradictions, you need concentration of attention and good memory.
For example, in a textbook on literature in one place says: Bunin does not obscure the
social contradictions of life. And in another place, a few pages later, about the same:
The writer bypasses class contradictions, social contrasts;
- explicit (the members of the contradiction directly correlate with each other as some
statement and its negation):
Yuri Ivanovich Detochkin is guilty, but he is not guilty;
- implicit (members of the contradiction are not directly given, but can be deduced
from other statements of the text - for example, when counting points, scores,
percentages - or from the background knowledge of the addressee of the speech):
- One kilogram of caramel contains 85% sugar and 25% jam (when counting
percentages, they appear to be more than 100);

- The manuscript belongs to the 11th century, it is written on paper

(we need extra-textual, background knowledge to detect the contradiction: either the
manuscript does not belong to the 11th century, because there was no paper then; or
the manuscript is made not on paper, but on birch bark, on calfskin, etc.).
The logical laws of identity and contradiction are closely related to each other. If
the law of identity requires certainty, identity of the content of thought, the law of
contradiction dictates that we, repeating some position, do not put in it the opposite
meaning. In practice, sometimes the departure from the originally expressed thought,
shifting the logical plan is so significant that the thought turns into its own opposite.
For example: Even the smallest child is already an independent person. However, to
invent special methods of education for everyone is not necessary. Experience shows
that there are general solid rules of upbringing. The first of them is that any child
and physical properties and character traits are unique. There are no two perfectly
identical children. Therefore, each of them needs a different approach (in the
beginning of the reasoning the author says that the general rules of upbringing should
be applied to a child, and in the end, s/he states the opposite - that each child needs an
individual approach).
Law of the excluded third
From the law of contradiction follows the law of the excluded third, which sounds
like this: of the two contradictory statements about the same subject, taken at the
same time and in the same respect, one is necessarily true (and the other - false, the
third is not given). Aristotle formulated this law as follows: there can be nothing in
the middle between two contradictory judgments.
The third law of logic provides coherence, non-contradictory thoughts, serves as a
basis for choosing the true judgment. The law of the excluded third makes an
important requirement for reasoning: every time when really contradictory (mutually
exclusive) judgments are faced, in order to eliminate uncertainty, it is necessary to
identify first which of these judgments is true and which is false, and not to look for
the truth in some additional judgment. This law regulates the sequence of
presentation in the text.
An indispensable condition for compliance with the third law of logic - compared (or
opposed) statements must be really contradictory, i.e., such between which there is
not and cannot be a middle, third, intermediate concept. They must exclude each
other. When the author of an essay about a pilot writes: "A man on the ground can be
both soft and delicate, and in flight - concentrated, strong-willed" - he violates this
law. The listed character qualities are contrasted in this text, although in fact they are
not at all contradictory, excluding each other.
The law of the excluded third requires a clear and unambiguous answer to the
question. Sometimes it is enough to say "yes" or "no", and the author goes into vague
reasoning, leading away from a concrete conclusion.
Here is an example: The commission was instructed to examine whether the
statement of a tenant that room was not suitable for habitation corresponded to the
facts. After the inspection, the commission gave the following conclusion: "There is
disorder in the room. The documentation is in a terrible state. It is impossible to find
any loose ends.”N. P. Inspector does not respond to the complaints of the tenants. It
was necessary to give a concrete answer to the question ("yes" or "no"). The
commission for some reason did not want to answer the question directly. It tried to
find a third answer. From the point of view of logic, such an answer is untenable.
When analyzing and editing a text, the law of contradiction and the law of the
excluded third are often applied simultaneously. Having found a contradiction in the
text, the editor establishes the falsity of one of the judgments and, on the basis of the
law of the excluded third, determines the other statement as true.
Law of sufficient reason
According to this law, any position, in order to be considered quite reliable, suitable
for proof, must be proved, i.e. must be known sufficient grounds by virtue of which it
is considered to be true.
Observance of the law of sufficient grounds provides such qualities of the text as
validity, persuasiveness, credibility. The law of sufficient reasoning ensures that our
thoughts in any reasoning were internally connected, support and extend one another,
i.e. requires consistency and argumentation of statements.
The main errors resulting from violations of the law of sufficient reason are
unconvincing, inconsistency, incorrect establishment of causal relationships.
For example: He had a soft oval face and puffy lips. And if it were not for the slightly
prominent cheekbones, it would be difficult to guess in him a man associated with a
hard and courageous profession of a logger ( As an argument proving that the man
has a hard and manly profession, a purely external sign is put forward - physiological
features of the face of the hero of the story).
Relationships between concepts (logical names)
Not only the text as a whole, but also the relations between individual concepts
(logical names) should be analyzed from a logical point of view.
Name - an expression of language, denoting a single object, a set of similar objects,
properties, relations.
Singular names denote one and only one subject (Sun, Earth, A. S. Pushkin).
Common names denote more than one object (star, planet, poet).
Concept - a common name with a clear and stable content (house, square, oxygen,
love).
The content of the name - a set of properties inherent in all the objects denoted by
this name. For example, the content of the name chair - to be a piece of furniture
designed for sitting, and have legs, seat and backrest.
The scope of the name - a set of all objects that have the features included in the
content of the name. For example, the scope of the name chair includes all chairs.
The main relations between concepts (logical names):
- identity;
- subordination (inclusion);
- crossing;
- extraposition (complete exclusion).
At the relations of identity names denote the same object, these concepts are
interchangeable, for example:
Dreiser wrote a novel... where, the author/he/writer tells...
Relations of subordination (inclusion) arise between generic and species concepts, for
example: educational institution - gymnasium. /school/college. The generic concept,
as a broader in volume, "absorbs", includes the generic concept.
Some names can enter into crossing relations. The volumes of such names partially
coincide, for example: engineers - innovators, youth – students, retired - elderly
In relations of non-position (complete exclusion) volumes of concepts do not overlap
in anything, for example: table - elephant, novel - opera.
Errors associated with the inability to establish relations between concepts
1 Identification of related but not identical concepts:
The play "At the Bottom" shocked people with its poverty (should be: is¬displayed
poverty. Here the concepts of poverty and the depiction of poverty in the play are
identified.

Being objectively in relations of exclusion (non-position), in this context they appear

as adjacent, interrelated. But they are not identical. However, the author uses another
concept instead of one, which leads to the substitution of the concept);
Afforestation plans should be provided with the necessary land area (it is necessary:
afforestation plans should be provided... - the adjacent, interrelated concepts of
afforestation and afforestation plans are identified).
2. Representation of identical concepts as different:
The novel emphasizes the connection of continuity of family traditions (connection
and continuity are the same thing).
3. combining overlapping concepts into one series:
Neighborhood kids, classmates visited me in the hospital (the notions of
neighborhood kids and classmates are intersecting: some of the neighborhood kids
may be classmates at the same time, and some classmates may be neighbors of the
author of the statement at the same time).
4. combining the subordinating and subordinate concepts into one row (when
enumerating, comparing and contrasting):
In August there are a lot of fruits, berries, fruits, vegetables in the market (the
concept of fruits is subordinating, generic in relation to the subordinate, generic
concepts of berries, fruits, vegetables);
He wanted to be a man, not an invalid (from the student's essay) (the concept of
invalid is included in the concept of man).
5. As generic (subordinate) and species (subordinate) concepts act concepts that are
not such:
Analgesics, iodine, absorbent cotton, bandages and other medicines should be
constantly in the first aid kit (the concepts of analgesics and iodine are included in
the concept of medicines, and the concepts of bandages and absorbent cotton are not
included in this concept, they are bandages).
Logical division of concepts
The scope of any common name is a certain set of its designates (denoted). Based on
different tasks and goals, this totality can be divided into separate groups. So, for
example, the entire set of newspapers can be divided by the principle of territorial
distribution into district, city, regional etc. By another principle, newspapers can be
divided into newspapers published in Kazakh, Russian, English, German, etc.
Logical division should be distinguished from the process of dissecting any
phenomenon into its constituent parts. The difference between them is the same as
between cutting a cake into pieces and dividing the cake into the appropriate types
(chocolate, biscuit, sand, etc.). In logical division is the division of the volume of the
concept into its constituent parts.
The basic rules of logical division are as follows.
1. Division should be proportionate. This means that the sum of the volumes of the
division members (constituent parts of the concept being divided) must exactly match
the volume of the concept being divided. Otherwise the division will be erroneous.
There are two main varieties of this error: incomplete division and division with
excessive members.
For example: The following types of text editing are distinguished: revision-editing,
revision-reduction, revision-processing (incomplete division, because another type of
editing is not specified - revision-editing);
Editors are scientific, technical, artistic and editors with a degree (an extra member
of the division - editors with a degree).
2. Throughout the whole process of division, one logical basis (criterion, principle,
feature on which the division is carried out) should be strictly observed.
This rule is violated, for example, in the following sentence: Houses are stone,
wooden and multi-storey (two logical bases are used here - 1) the material from
which houses are built; 2) the number of floors).
3. The members of the division must exclude each other.
This requirement is violated in the following text: Editors are scientific, technical,
artistic and editors with a degree (each of the first three members of the division is
with the fourth member in relation to the crossing. The members of the division do
not exclude each other: both scientific, technical and artistic editors can have an
academic degree).
It should be noted that these rules are interrelated, the violation of one of them entails
the violation of the other. Thus, the disconnection from the rule of a single logical
basis leads to the fact that the members of the division do not exclude each other, and
also to the fact that the division can be with redundant members (see the example
above).
Errors associated with violation of rules of logical division
(Discussion with students)
1. combining logically heterogeneous concepts into one row:
In the household he keeps 50 geese, many chickens, a piglet, a queen, a wife not
working (when listing the author does not observe such rules of logical division as "a
single logical basis of division" and "proportionality of division".
Here two logical bases are used when dividing the concept of household: one of them
- livestock, the other - family members. As a result, the rule of proportionality of
division is violated: the division with excessive members is obtained - the excessive
member in this context is the wife, as it is allocated on another logical basis).
2. Comparison or opposition of logically dissimilar concepts:
My mom is Russian, and my dad is a lawyer (from the speech of V. V. Zhirinovsky).
When enumerating, the author does not observe such rules of logical division as a
single logical basis of division and the rule that the members of the division must
exclude each other. When dividing the concept of parents two logical bases are used:
one of them - nationality, the other - profession. As a result, the rule of mutual
exclusion of division members is violated: the fact that the speaker's dad is a lawyer
does not exclude the fact that dad is also Russian, like mom).
It should be noted that the establishment of correct relations between concepts and
the rules of logical division of concepts are closely related to each other. One
violation can lead to another: failure to observe the unity of the logical basis in the
division of concepts leads to the association in one row of logically heterogeneous
concepts, crossing concepts, subordinate and subordinate concepts, etc.
List of recommended sources:
1. Кондаков Н.И. Логический словарь-справочник. М., 1975. С. 314.
2. Свинцов В.И. Логические основы редактирования текста. М., 1972.
3. Свинцов В.И. Смысловой анализ и обработка текста. М., 1979.
4. Свинцов В.И. Логика Учебник для факультетов журналистики и редакционно-издательских
факультетов полиграфических институтов. М., 1987.
5. Западов А. От рукописи к печатной странице. О мастерстве редактора. Изд. 2. М., 1982.
(Раздел «О пользе логики»).
 6. Мильчин А.Э. Методика и техника редактирования текста. Практическое пособие. М.,
1972. (Гл. VI. Анализ текста с логической стороны).
7. Накорякова К.М. Редактирование материалов массовой информации. Общая методика работы
над текстом. МГУ, 1982. (Гл. II. Логические основы редактирования текста).

Home task. Pедакторский логический анализ полемики на

примере политических ток-шоу
Задание. Проведите редакторский анализ логической структуры
интервью Paul Auster Interview: How I Became a
Writer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLhVjsczcb8
Задание. Проведите редакторский логический анализ полемики на примере
политических ток-шоу на родном и английском языке Oprah Winfrey on
Running for President & Trump. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz7R1i2zFpk
Задание 3. Проведите логический анализ теле-беседы Nobel Minds 2017.
https://youtu.be/jIkk4nCmLNY