Azande Logic <i>Versus</i> Western Logic?

Abstract

In Knowledge and Social Imagery, David Bloor suggests that logical reasoning is radically relativistic in the sense that there are incompatible ways of reasoning logically, and no culturally transcendent rules of correct logical inference exist which could allow for adjudication of these different ways of reasoning. Bloor cites an example of reasoning used by the Azande as an illustration of such logical relativism. A close analysis of this reasoning reveals that the Azande's logic is in fact impeccably Aristotelian. I argue that the conclusions Bloor can legitimately draw from his case study are not controversial and do nothing to make plausible the thesis of logical relativism.