Using pure logic

THE BIG IDEA 60 seconds to change the world

Can a simple idea help make the world a better place? Each week we ask a guest to outline an idea to improve all our lives. Here, mathematician Manil Suri suggests that children should be encouraged to find answers purely using logic.

Everyone should think for themselves more, rather than relying on ideology.

Don't ride along with the teachings of your left- or right-wing politics - or even worse, your religion I'd say.

Instead, try to reason out the correct path from common sense and basic humanist principles.

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Many of us actually might be already too set in our ways to make this change but we can all train children around us to behave this way.

They have a natural curiosity, which gives rise to a hundred questions for each answer, and it behoves us not to squelch this spirit.

What I mean by that is that rather than getting irritated or invoking God or tradition, we need to patiently show then how to rely on logic to arrive at the best answer.

And thus, trained to not accept notions at face value but to rely on their own reasoning power - they might one day grow up and challenge us to do the same.

Manil Suri is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a novelist.

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