With his customary incisiveness, W. V. Quine presents logic as the product of two factors, truth and grammar--but argues against the doctrine that the logical truths are true because of grammar or language. Rather, in presenting a general theory of grammar and discussing the boundaries and possible extensions of logic, Quine argues that logic is not a mere matter of words.
This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1837. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... BOOK IV. GRAMMAR OF LOGIC. CHAPTER I. OF IDEAS. 443. That the young logician may proceed with perspicuity, we begin with examining Ideas as existing separately, or detached from one another. Ideas, as the impressions made on the mind either by external objects, through the medium of'the senses, or by the consciousness which it has of its own internal operations, have been defined in Articles 34 and 36. Illus. 1. When an external object presents itself to any of the five senses, sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, some picture, or notion, or conception, of it is formed in the mind; but this picture, or notion, or conception, is totally different from the object, and is called the Idea of it; whereas, the object is called the Archetype of the Idea.' (Art. 38. Illus. 1, 2, 3.) 2. By sight, we receive the greatest number, and the most lively of all our Ideas; as, for example, those of all the visible objects in nature, animated and inanimated, with which we are already acquainted, or can become acquainted. By hearing, we get Ideas of natural and artificial sounds, particularly of the sounds of language, and the important information which they convey. The Ideas of the other three senses, taste, smell, touch, are not nearly so numerous, and they relate mostly to the preservation or the comfortable subsistence of the individual. By taste and smell, we are directed to those aliments which are necessary and salutary, and are diverted from those which are hurtful or destructive. By the touch, we examine the surfaces of bodies, and receive all those Ideas which that operation is qualified to suggest. All the Ideas we acquire through the medium of the external senses, are said to be derived from sensation. (Art. 4].) The only other source of Ideas is our own cons...
"A delightful book … I should like to have written it myself." — Bertrand Russell First published in 1936, this first full-length presentation in English of the Logical Positivism of Carnap, Neurath, and others has gone through many printings to become a classic of thought and communication. It not only surveys one of the most important areas of modern thought; it also shows the confusion that arises from imperfect understanding of the uses of language. A first-rate antidote for fuzzy thought and muddled writing, this remarkable book has helped philosophers, writers, speakers, teachers, students, and general readers alike. Mr. Ayers sets up specific tests by which you can easily evaluate statements of ideas. You will also learn how to distinguish ideas that cannot be verified by experience — those expressing religious, moral, or aesthetic experience, those expounding theological or metaphysical doctrine, and those dealing with a priori truth. The basic thesis of this work is that philosophy should not squander its energies upon the unknowable, but should perform its proper function in criticism and analysis.
Excerpt from A Grammar of Logic and Intellectual Philosophy, on Didactic Principles: For the Use of Schools and Private Instruction Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric are the handmaids of Literature, Science and Philosophy. The study of grammar is the study of language, and memory is the faculty which it chiefly employs and exercises. But in proceeding towards tho cultivation of taste and genius, the acquisition of science, and other ulterior objects of education, the faculties most susceptible of improvement and refinement are the imagination and the UNDERSTANDING. Polite Literature is addressed to die imagination and the understanding in conjunction; science is addressed to the understanding alone. With the view, therefore, of conducting youth from the mere exercise of memory, in the study of language, towards investigations on die powers of the understanding, in the regions of science, my Grammar of Rhetoric and Polite Literature professes, by a proper gradation, to occupy the mind, for some time, in those agreeable prospects exhibited to the imagination, and in those interesting speculations, also, addressed to the understanding, with which die ails of speaking and writing so amply abound. But the most successful initiation and discipline into die researches of philosophy, are disquisitions about the objects with which we are familiar, and inquiries into the operations of the human mind, which we every day experience. And Logic has been justly styled the history of the human mind, inasmuch as it traces the progress of our knowledge, from our first and simple perceptions, through all their different combinations, and all those numerous deductions, that result from variously comparing them one with another. For it is thus, only, that we are let into the frame and contexture of our own minds, - that we learn in what manner we ought to conduct our thoughts, in order to arrive at truth, and avoid error, - that we see how to build one discovery upon another, and, by preserving die chain of reasoning uniform and unbroken, to pursue the relations of things through all their labyrinths and windings, and at length exhibit them to the view of the soul with all the advantages of light and conviction. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
In the twenty-first century there are two ways to study logic. The more recent approach is symbolic logic. The history of teaching logic since World War II, however, casts doubt on the idea that symbolic logic is best for a first logic course. Logic as a Liberal Art is designed as part of a minority approach, teaching logic in the "verbal" way, in the student's "natural" language, the approach invented by Aristotle. On utilitarian grounds alone, this "verbal" approach is superior for a first course in logic, for the whole range of students. For millennia, this "verbal" approach to logic was taught in conjunction with grammar and rhetoric, christened the trivium. The decline in teaching grammar and rhetoric in American secondary schools has led Dr. Rollen Edward Houser to develop this book. The first part treats grammar, rhetoric, and the essential nature of logic. Those teachers who look down upon rhetoric are free, of course, to skip those lessons. The treatment of logic itself follows Aristotle's division of the three acts of the mind (Prior Analytics 1.1). Formal logic is then taken up in Aristotle's order, with Parts on the logic of Terms, Propositions, and Arguments. The emphasis in Logic as a Liberal Art is on learning logic through doing problems. Consequently, there are more problems in each lesson than would be found, for example, in many textbooks. In addition, a special effort has been made to have easy, medium, and difficult problems in each Problem Set. In this way the problem sets are designed to offer a challenge to all students, from those most in need of a logic course to the very best students.
