Skip to main content

The Logic of Hate



If hate is a disease, it is virile, vile, contagious, and lethal.  It has sanctioned all varieties of murderous activity, including war and the destruction of entire groups, ethnically, religiously, and politically.  This emotion of destruction compels those infected with a single-mindedness overwhelming any sense of propriety.  It defeats normal logic and decency.
Associated,  there is a logic, and it’s simple.  Call it the first order propositional logic of hate

"If A hates B and B loves C, then A hates C."

This is also a type of converse transitivity.  Aristotle, of course, would be dismayed. You may say the logic of hate is ridiculous.  Yet, the philosophers have constructed quite an interesting and complete logic of belief.  It even has a name, Doxastic logic. Just Google it.

Applications:
a. Let A = Catholics, B = Protestants, and C = Martin Luther.  (maybe a little dated)
b. Let A= Muslims, B = Infidels, and C = Baptists or any religion.
c. Let A = Party I, B =  Party II, and C = Party II rules
d. Let A = DEMS, B = Trump, and C = Any Appointment
e. Let A = Election loser, B = Election winner, and C = New policies
f. Let A = Hatfields, B = McCoys, and C = Just about anything.
g. Let A= Anarchist, B= Government, and C = Order

Not surprising that some of these have religious overtones. Statues and other laws forbid its application elsewhere.  For example, the Police are not often allowed to use it in making arrests. Nor are the courts in convicting the accused. Mostly.

Thousands of novels and hundreds of movies have been produced where the logic of hate is the undertow if not the full basis of the plot.

The logic of hatred is not always applied blindly on its face. Self-proclaimed intellectuals, politicians,  and officials would feel silly admitting it.  Thus, its adherence requires alternate reasons for the transitivity to C. It could be a sexual charge, a subversion of accepted scripture, or other prototypical examples.   It is reminiscent of that the old logic about American Indians, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian,” is based on a couple of atrocities.

Important to note is that hate and love are not opposites, nor is the one a negation of the other, but rather extremes of emotion. Thus, the logic is a somewhat non standard.  For example, it is not transitive, as in If A hates B and B hates C, then A hates C. As well it is not symmetric as in If A hates B, then B hates A, a proscription of many religions. Thus, the logic of hate is nonlinear. As well it is multidimensional, both in concordance with the nature of emotions. 

On basic logic, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-order_logic#Provable_identities

Comments