The illogical is opposed to the coherent or the rational.
The first thing we are going to do in order to know the meaning of the term illogical is to discover its etymological origin. In this case, we have to emphasize that it is a word that derives from Greek. Exactly we can establish that it is the result of the sum of two lexical components of said language:
-The prefix in- , which can be translated as “no”.
-The word logikos , which is synonymous with “relative to reason and the word.”
Concept of illogical
The adjective illogical is used to describe what is contrary to logic . The illogical, therefore, is opposite to the rational or the coherent .
For example: “It is illogical that they want to charge me fifty pesos for this product when two days ago I paid twelve pesos for it” , “Taking into account the differences that exist between both teams, it would be illogical for the local team not to obtain the victory” , “Explain to me “Why do we have to wait in the rain when there is an empty room a few meters from here: it is illogical.”
Irrational, crazy, incoherent, incongruous, absurd o inconsistent son algunas de las palabras que podemos establecer que son sinónimo del término ilógico que ahora nos ocupa. Por el contrario, entre sus antónimos destacan adjetivos tales como logical, rational, consistent, congruent, consequent o reasonable, por ejemplo.
Illogical actions can make it difficult to solve a problem.
The opposite of thoughtful or judicious
To understand what can be described as illogical, it is first necessary to know what logic is. Although the concept has several meanings, in this case we are interested in its meaning as the sensible way of acting and thinking: that is, judicious and reflective. Logic, in this way, has common sense.
In this way, the illogical is neither judicious nor reflective and lacks common sense . Suppose a young person who is unemployed claims that he is avoiding unnecessary expenses so as not to deplete his savings. However, every weekend he goes out to dinner, drinks in bars and goes to clubs. As you can see, the boy's behavior is illogical, since it contradicts his own statement. Someone who does not have a job and who intends to minimize expenses should not allocate their money to leisure activities that can be dispensed with.
Let's now take the case of someone who wants to lose weight but, instead of consuming low-calorie and natural foods, eats junk food every day: hamburgers, French fries, etc. This diet is illogical because it will generate the opposite effect to the desired one.
The illogical in books
In the field of culture, we also find different works that have in their titles the term that we are now addressing. This would be the case, for example, of the book titled “From the logical to the illogical” , which was published in 2014 and is written by Enrique Castillo Alba . It addresses, for example, the power of human beings to convert what is logical into illogical and vice versa and thus introduce substantial changes in what is the reigning society.
Likewise, within the sector of mathematics and philosophy, the book “The art of logic (in an illogical world)” stands out, which is written by Eugenia Cheng and which seeks to help the reader discover how analogy, syllogisms , the careful deduction…