In addition logic tells much of the behavior of physical reality, but the dominant reality of our lives is moral. We know how to live in the physical world, but we do not have a moral logic for not overpopulating it and killing ourselves for sport. The nature of truth in the physical world can be arrived at in a straight forward and logical manor. Moral truths do not present as a target that can be seen through a scope, but as a destination requiring travails, and ardour to reach. The story of humanity is a moral story, and every story has a moral.

Logics are simple rules of argumentation. It does not have physical content. It simply deals with forms. Hence, a logically true argument does not mean necessarily true.

"The story of humanity is a moral story, and every story has a moral." What do you mean by that?

Then it is not logical to expect gravity to exert equal force upon each side of a scale?

A logically true argument follows nature

It was logical until 1988 when it was discovered that the expansion of the universe was accelerating, and therefore either gravity was NOT acting equally OR there was an undiscovered force, i.e. "dark energy" that was countering it.

Point is that while our logic makes assumptions about consistency within nature (not necessarily predictability, though), that's only as good as the discoveries we've made. All it takes is a new understanding to overturn our application of logic to nature. Look at what Einstein did. Look at what Newton did. They overturned the previous paradigms, rendering them ILLOGICAL in the face of their discoveries.

Logic is based more on syntax than on nature. If you want to get down to atomic logic, i.e. of the style of Bertrand Russell, then at best logic can only correspond to our best understanding of nature, rather than nature itself.

Why not study literature?

Questioning the value of literature is acceptable, question everything, but I really do not see the question as a very serious one. The benefits are almost endless. If nothing else, the study of literature helps us communicate more effectively.

Literature gives insight into man - literature is the struggle of man against himself. In times of war we should set ourselves to studying the enemy, and at all times we should set ourselves to studying our greatest enemy - our selves.

Language compartmentalizes our memories. We who speak English primarily, think in English! Thus it seems to follow that as one's vocabulary, ability to express ideas and conceptualize increases, so does one's mind. Perspicuousness is invaluable! Communication, on the whole, lacks with most people. The ability to express yourself (and think clearly, with exactness), I believe, is in direct proportion to an individual's command of language.
The best way I know to expand ones' vocabulary and conceptualization skills is through literature.

I study literature because it allows me to live more than one life at a time.

It takes this small, lineal thread called my life and makes it into a tapestry.

It allows me to walk right out of my own skin and be someone else for a little while.

It gives me a far wider perspective on life than my being in the prison of this one small body.

S9

That's a whole lot of directions to be going in at once! :p

But if I take your meaning correctly, I'd agree. As to the basic question of Why Study Literature, its most poignant benefit I've found is the expansion of one's own mind.

Language compartmentalizes our memories. We who speak English primarily, think in English! Thus it seems to follow that as one's vocabulary, ability to express ideas and conceptualize increases, so does one's mind. Perspicuousness is invaluable! Communication, on the whole, lacks with most people. The ability to express yourself (and think clearly, with exactness), I believe, is in direct proportion to an individual's command of language.

The best way I know to expand ones' vocabulary and conceptualization skills is through literature.

Fido,

Yes indeed, literature can be a self-portrait, but not just of who we are. Literature gives us an opportunity to look at who we wish to be, and also, who we wish (no pray) that we would never be. (Like a serial killer.)

We can get right inside a serial killers head and look out at the world from there. This is certainly eye opening, and puts the lie to Disney land.

Yes, imagination, too. We might even imagine things that would eventually prove useful to mankind.

A friend of mine told me about a sci fi story, he once read, that spoke about the invention of a space elevator. This elevator would be used to shuttle people and goods from the earth to spaceports without the terrible cost of breaking through gravity every time.

I smiled when he told me this. "Oh go on," I said.

Speaking of life being stranger than fiction. Were we?

Anyways, would you believe that a group of geniuses are working on this very problem in places like MIT, and other scientific strongholds, right now as we speak?

Ah yes, entertainment, a necessity to me, sometimes seemingly more important than food. Because, if life isn't any fun, no how, what's the use?

S9

The problem with sci fi is that people are the same when transported into the future

For most people Sci Fi is a guilty pleasure. They don't expect it to change the world, or mankind, as we know him.