Logical Trumpism in action (Vinjamuri, 2026)
A.J. Ayer wrote Language, Truth, and Logic in order to tell the world about Logical Empiricism (Ayer, 1935/1952). The purpose of Robert Hanna’s essay, “Trump, Truth, and Logic,” is to tell the world about what he calls Logical Trumpism. To the extent that the Logical Empiricists held that the choice of a logic is inherently non-cognitive because it’s strictly determined by human self-interest, and that, as Rudolf Carnap famously put it, “in logic there are no morals,” then Logical Trumpism can be regarded as a reduction-to-absurdity of Logical Empiricism. It’s not that Logical Empiricism entails Logical Trumpism—we shouldn’t blame Carnap for that—but instead that Logical Empiricism allows for Logical Trumpism and doesn’t definitively rule it out. But the choice of a logic must be inherently rational and justified by good reasons. So, against Carnap and Logical Empiricism, and especially against Trump and Logical Trumpism: in logic, there not only are are but must be some morals.
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