system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Will learning logic tech me how to reason?

Will logic teach me how reason (better), if so how will it do that and where should I start in learning logic?
gpt
Formal logic will help you reason *better,* but it won't finish the job. The main thing it's going to be doing for you is helping you learn how to evaluate an argument's structure and the force of that argument. To be really useful, that reasoning needs to be backed up with some wisdom, like recognizing what are good sources to use, who to trust, how to interpret things contextually, and so on.

Traditionally, logic is the first thing you need to learn in philosophy. The first books on logic ever written by Aristotle were later called the "organon" or "tool" because that's how logic was treated. Logic is a tool that you bring into other disciplines to help figure them out. Now the exact status of logic as a mere "tool" can be disputed itself since logic will often get mixed up into metaphysical problems (e.g. if future statements are true or false, does that mean determinism is correct?). Still, logic certainly *is* a useful tool for wherever you plan on using it, and learning it first seems like sound advice.

I would start with syllogistic logic, then propositional logic, and then maybe symbolic logic. You could even read through Aristotle's original works if you want, although that's not necessarily the easiest user-friendly method.