The Logic Of Vulcan

This is my most recent post on Catallarchy: Catallarchy: The Logic Of Vulcan

I'm cross posting it because I am particularly fond of it. Click on the link if you want to see the pretty pictures that go along with it.

The Logic of Vulcan

As an avid fan and regular viewer of Star Trek (in its many iterations) I often find myself contemplating the reasoning underlying the different premises, cultures, and characters we are presented with in the Star Trek universe. I once gave a speech, for example, on why the Federation was socialist. My reasoning being the strange lack of currency and major business interests (that weren’t tied to the federation in some way) on Earth.

Recently I have been watching new episodes of Enterprise, the Star Trek prequel series that is now in its 4th season. This year the writers have apparently decided to better fill out the history, religion, and character of Vulcan society. The theme that arises again and again is that “logic” is not only at the core of Vulcan spirituality but defines on the deepest level what it means to be Vulcan (whether these are two distinct ideas or one in the same is a matter of opinion).

Right now on Enterprise, Vulcan society is rediscovering the teachings of their most revered spiritual leader, Surak. Yet in spite of having lost the knowledge of these teachings for many centuries They obviously did not lose their beliefs regarding the way Vulcan’s should and should not behave. Basically they believe that to be Vulcan is to be a stoic being that holds logic above all else, and that any display or experience of emotion is a weakness that will ultimately hinder them in the execution of their duties and obligations.

In the Star Trek universe, and indeed on Vulcan, logic and emotion are opposites. One is a strength, and the other a diametrically opposed weakness. The problem with this view however is revealed when examining the broader academic categories under which these two terms fall. Logic is philosophically an aspect of epistemology (the study of knowledge i.e. how we know what we know). Emotion falls within psychology (a science studying the cognitive and physiological causes of behavior).*

The point is that making the two opposites combines philosophy and psychology in a manner that they do not combine. Logic is a system designed to analyze identity. It gives us a means of checking to see if our premises are consistent with or contradictory to each other (it will not necessarily tell us if they are true), and for identifying conclusions that result from a set of premises etc. Emotion to be the opposite, and in the Vulcan view a necessary underminer of logic, it would have to be a process unto itself that always inhibited the recognition of contradictions, inconsistencies, and consistencies within one’s own reasoning. Yet even strong emotions do not necessarily inhibit the ability to use logic for those that know how to use it.

Personally I have known many individuals who could come up with extremely tight logical reasoning while experiencing an extreme emotional state. In these cases it was their premises and not their reasoning that ended up being off. Consider for example the logical implications of the premise that the entire world is “out to get you.”

The flaw in the Vulcan worldview is not however the depiction of emotion as a set of states that can inhibit one’s logic (as this is not inaccurate), but rather the presentation of logic (an epistemological system) as their psychological core. Logic simply cannot be one’s psyche. Strangely enough (or perhaps its not strange at all) there is a strong correlation between the logic/emotion dichotomy of Vulcan, and the objective/subjective dichotomy of objectivism.

While objectivism does not discount the value of emotions as a source of information, and as a meaningful part of human experience, it does define subjective to mean, in application, acting on emotion-inspired whims. Thus most emotion-inspired action would lack the necessary consideration of context to be objective. The necessary implication of this is that emotion can hinder objective reasoning.

In fact I think the Vulcan’s may be objectivists (though not necessarily in the Randian sense of the term) at heart. What they are ultimately trying to accomplish with their suppression of emotion, and strong adherence to logic is objectivity. They believe emotion hinders sound reasoning and judgment (in this context “sound” means to be both true and logically valid). In the Star Trek universe this typically works for them, and technically there is little reason that it shouldn’t.

Vulcans get into trouble, however, when they choose to disregard the emotions of more emotional (and perhaps less logical) beings than themselves. In a classic episode of Star Trek, the original series for example, Spock (the Vulcan science officer of the star ship Enterprise) finds himself leading his first away mission on an alien planet. On that planet they enconter giant, wooly, spear throwing aliens who manage to kill several of the crew members.

When the rest of the team returns to the shuttle craft the human crew decides that they wants to retrieve and bury the bodies of their fallen comrades. Spock however considers this to be an illogical and dangerous waste of time and resources. The result is a near mutiny. Effectively the episode is a morality play. It depicts Spock’s attempts to lead his crew without respect for the inherent emotional nature of humans as being naive and dangerous, and indeed it was. (In Spock’s defense, the humans in Star Trek the original series were far more hot-headed, reationary, and downright “emotional” than they are in later series.) But the problem in this episode was cultural not philosophical. It was the cultural mores and beliefs of the humans that inspired their emotional response and that ultimately came into conflict with Spock’s cultural mores and beliefs (which happened to specifically inhibit an emotional response in him).

This is typically how Vulcan/human conflicts, whether small or large, play out. They typically end up being cultural issues and not philosophical differences. In fact it is the relative valuation of risk of both humans and Vulcans that typically ends up creating the conflict. When risk seems disproportionate to the value or likelihood of a gain Vulcans consider a given action illogical. However Vulcans typically end up taking the biggest risks of all when they are convinced that the action it entails is supported by sound logical reasoning. Thus in spite of the many attempts within the Star Trek universe to depict it as such, humans are not superior to Vulcans due to their emotional nature, nor are Vulcans philosophically inferior to humans due to their categorical suppression of emotion. Likewise emotion is not a weakness, and a lack of it is not a strength - at least not in the Star Trek universe. Your own mileage may vary.


*"Emotion” also potentially falls within cognitive science -I say “potentially” because I do not believe there is a consensus on the matter.