Can you become a logician and focus entirely on the study of logic, but ignore mathematics?

Question

In other words, how vital is a knowledge of mathematics to a philosophy major who is poor at it, but interested in logic?

Answer 1

There is a branch of logic called mathematical logic. So you will not be able to avoid it. Also the same skill set necessary to mathematics is necessary to the study of logic. Let that be a caution to you, "We may yearn for stars but will never be so tall as to reach them."

Answer 2

i don't think Spinoza was ever considered a mathematician...

Answer 3

Difficult for me to answer this as I've always enjoyed mathematics AND logic.  But I'm also retired from working 36 years as a computer programmer and I know that while you don't need much math in programming you need a strong background in logic.

So it would seem that, yes, you can learn logic without paying much mind to mathematics.  Although it is hard for me to imagining wanting to avoid such a beautiful study.

Answer 4

I know people who are absolutely terrible at mathematics, but are wizards at geometry.  The relationships between lengths and angles, and the proofs that they allow, actually uses a different part of the brain than abstract or computational mathematics.  Logic is the same way.  My sister is a lawyer, and an extremely skilled logician.  She failed remedial college algebra twice.  So you can specialize in certain areas of logic without knowing much in the way of mathematics.  But if you truly want to STUDY logic then you cannot ignore the mathematical aspects entirely.  To do so would be not to study it.  You may be poor at math, but I doubt you're so terrible as to be unable to pass the courses that require a modest math background.  You can steer away from it, but just recognize that you'll be like a weighlifter who never works his lower body.