I found that studying symbolic logic, especially in a philosophical (language-based) context, helped me clarify my thinking. In other words, it helped me differentiate between concepts, trace arguments, and determine if something actually made sense. It’s not so much about solving problems, more about “organizing” the way you think.
Agreed. Even if all you learn is the difference between validity and truth, this is an especially worthwhile difference to hammer into your brain. A lot of poor thinking comes not from invalid reasoning, but from hidden assumptions that are untrue. Conversely, the identification of contradiction is a skill that can be practiced with formal logic, and most invalid and convoluted arguments are easiest to unravel by finding those contradictions.
