Do or Do Not · 22 February 2025
Do or do not. There is no…
We have all heard Yoda’s quote from The Empire Strikes Back. “Do or do not. There is no try.” It is a great motivational quote. I tell athletes this all the time. Actually, I tell them that “can’t” is a naughty word and it will cost them 25 pushups. But the notion that we are either going to do something or not do something is certainly a truism. We might try. And we get away with trying. But that does not cut it in reality. We either do or we do not. There really is no in between.
But Yoda’s quote is an interesting from a different perspective too. It is interesting from a logic perspective.
Now I know that logic and reason are not in vogue these days. You cannot tell somebody they are being illogical because feelings rule the day. We feel this or we feel that. So we do this or we do that because our feelings are what matter most. So to even have a notion that logic and reason might play any part in decision-making is ludicrous these days. Or so it seems. Even so, I want to tackle Yoda’s quote from a logical (albeit tongue in cheek) sort of way.
The “do or do not” part of the quote is a wonderful notion. Feeling-wise and logic-wise. After all, we feel that it is true. We can only have it one way or the other. We either do or do not. It feels right. It also makes logical sense. You can only have it one way or the other. Do or not do. The negation of do is do not, which is what Yoda says, and it is the logical way to say it. There are even symbols that show the logic, but I will not get into that here. The point is that a statement or its negation can be true but they cannot both be true. At least not at the same time in the same sense.
Now, I know what you are thinking. Something ought not make sense both emotionally and logically. (Either that or you were thinking about food. Or maybe that is just me.) But Yoda’s statement of doing or not doing makes sense in both ways. We feel it emotionally and we understand it logically. And there are probably other things that are right from both perspectives. Even if it might feel wrong. In fact, I would say that there are definitely many other things that are right both emotionally and logically.
But back to the rest of Yoda’s statement.
I never really thought of the logic of “There is no try.” But I should have. If there really is no try, then Yoda’s statement ought to read, “There is no…” After all, if there is no try, then not only could you not try, you could not say “try.” Try would not exist. Not in essence or principal or linguistically. No means no. Period. So if there is no try, there is no try. You cannot even say try.
I suppose it makes no difference in the long run whether there exists such a thing as try or not. We all try. We do. We may or may not succeed, but we do our best to get there. And maybe that is what Yoda was saying. Try is synonymous with not doing. We say we try when we do not really mean it. We say we try when we are just going through the motions. So perhaps Yoda was not saying that try does not exist, but that he expected Luke’s best effort. Of course, we know this is true. Just like when we say always and never in sentences. We use hyperbole to make a point. There are so few always and never statements that are true that we may as well say that we can never make never statements. Although there are always exceptions. (Neither of which makes sense from a logic perspective.)
Well, I hope that you do not feel you have wasted your time on this post on logic. And I hope you understand the notion that we really ought to do or do not. After all, there is no…
© 2025 Michael T. Miyoshi
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