Purpose implies a willful
agent.
Willful intent is a decision making process to put certain events
into place to establish certain consequences. And all of this
assumes a premise/conclusion type of relationship between cause
and effect. So I do not believe that the Will of man or God is
something that cannot be defined logically.
To go from suggesting that
the universe must be logical to suggesting that its "very
purpose" is to "demonstrate what is logical" is a
big step.
"Purpose" is still another word that describes the
relationship between events and their consequences. For instance,
the purpose of putting a pan of water on the stove is to bring it
to boil. This is other words for saying, "IF you put a pan
of water on the stove, THEN it will come to boil." And you
can see the premise and conclusion in this last sentence. The
word "purpose" suggests an intelligence who knows what
will happen if you do something and does it because it intends to
effect that consequence. Still, I think that the principle
applies. I could have just as easily have used the words
"The universe WILL demonstrate what is logical" without
lose of generality. For the universe goes from state to state
without display of the general principles employed. The general
principles are not distinguished in that single transition of
state. In order to demonstrate the general principles that
determine the universe, it requires memory to record the
relationship between many shifts in state. Only then can
generalities be determined. Then if there exists entities that
exist only if they use the correct generalities, the correct
general principles that govern the universe will be demonstrated
by the existence of those who survive.
You seem to be basing your
conclusion that the universe is not unreasonable on the fact that
reasonable debate would not be possible in an unreasonable
universe. Let's grant that point for a second. All that proves is
that the universe doesn't violate the laws of reason. For example
a statement about the universe cannot be both true and untrue at
the same time. It does not prove that the universe is capable of
reason or that it was created for a purpose.
So you are saying that I would be using the word
"reason" equivocally - one definition of reason refers
to the subject as a whole, the other definition refers to the
action or process of reasoning. I do not necessarily mean to say
that the act of reasoning by which events are determined proves a
conscious being that is doing the reasoning. The action of reason
that determines how one event will proceed from another event may
be instantaneous and automatic without conscious effort. Reason
(or logical consistency) may simply be the underlying force of
the universe. And so when used in this sense, I don't think that
I am using the word "reason" (or
"demonstrate" for that matter) equivocally. For I can
refer to any other force in the universe, say gravity, both as a
general concept and as an action that produces events.
But perhaps you are having more trouble with whether I am
equivocally using the phrase, "the universe will demonstrate
the principles of logic." One meaning is that the principles
of logic are demonstrated by the events in the universe simply
because the events of the universe are merely consistent with
logic. Another meaning is that the general principles will be
abstracted from a concrete universe (and this in the form of
human beings). This is mathematically equivalent to asking
whether the axioms of any system of logic can be derive from the
theorems. Intuitively, it seems necessary that the axiom are
implied by the theorems because you would not even be able to
write the theorems if the axiom did not exist. You must use the
rules of writing theorems to write a theorem.
In any event, if humans are able to abstract the general
principles of cause and effect, premise and conclusion, and use
them to maintain their existence, then since humans were produced
using the concrete material universe, the concrete universe DOES
and WILL abstract the principles of the universe. For the
universe produced humans that do abstract. Furthermore, if humans
only exist if they are able to understand (through abstraction)
the principles of cause and effect, premise and conclusion, then
their existence is determined by the fundamental principles of
logic whose fundamental variables are either true or false. They
exist if their understanding is true, they cease to exist if
their understanding is false so that their existence is logically
equivalent to the validity of their understanding of the logical
principles that they follow.
But your argument was that
the proof of that fact could be demonstrated in the inability of
anyone to prove that the universe was illogical. That fact
doesn't prove anything. You were presumably presenting a complete
argument based on that false conclusion.
No, I did not mean that the logical consistency of the universe
was proven by the inability of humans to prove otherwise but by
the inability of logic itself to prove otherwise. The principles
of logic cannot prove that anything does not comply with the rule
of logic. For it is only capable of defining entities that do
comply with the rules of logic.
Many people have argued
that reality might transcend any finite conceptualization of it.
They are wasting their time, for it is not within the ability of
any logical system to suggest that something does not comply with
that system. For any system of logic only deals with variables
that can be defined in that system. You cannot define any entity
that does not comply with the rules of that system. So they could
never formally prove that a statement is not logical.