logic

logic
The general science of inference. Deductive logic, in which a conclusion follows from a set of premises, is distinguished from inductive logic, which studies the way in which premises may support a conclusion without entailing it. In deductive logic the conclusion cannot be false if the premises are true. The aim of a logic is to make explicit the rules by which inferences may be drawn, rather than to study the actual reasoning processes that people use, which may or may not conform to those rules. In the case of deductive logic, if we ask why we need to obey the rules, the most general form of answer is that if we do not we contradict ourselves (or, strictly speaking, we stand ready to contradict ourselves. Someone failing to draw a conclusion that follows from a set of premises need not be contradicting him or herself, but only failing to notice something. However, he or she is not defended against adding the contradictory conclusion to his or her set of beliefs.) There is no equally simple answer in the case of inductive logic, which is in general a less robust subject, but the aim will be to find reasoning such that anyone failing to conform to it will have improbable beliefs. Aristotle is generally recognized as the first great logician, and Aristotelian logic or traditional logic (see syllogism ) dominated the subject until the 19th century. It has become increasingly recognized in the 20th century that fine work was done within that tradition, but syllogistic reasoning is now generally regarded as a limited special case of the forms of reasoning that can be represented within the propositional and predicate calculus . These form the heart of modern logic. Their central notions, of quantifiers, variables, and functions were the creation of the German mathematician Frege, who is recognized as the father of modern logic, although his treatment of a logical system as an abstract mathematical structure, or algebra, had been heralded by Boole (see Boolean algebra ). Modern logic is thus called mathematical logic for two reasons: first, the logic itself is an object of mathematical study, but secondly, the forms introduced by Frege provided a language capable of representing all mathematical reasoning. This was something traditional logic had been quite incapable of tackling. The propositional and predicate calculus study ways of combining propositions with the connectives expressing truth-functions, and of combining information about the quantity of times predicates are satisfied. These highly general operations can occur in any discourse, from mathematics to discussion of the football results. More specific logics study particular topics such as time, possibility, and obligation. Thus there exist deontic logics, modal logics, logics of tense, and so on. For other notions associated with the study of logic see interpretation, logical calculus, logical constants, logical form, model theory, proof theory, quantifier, truth-function, variable.

Philosophy dictionary. . 2011.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?
Synonyms:

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Logic — logic …   Philosophy dictionary

  • Logic — • A historical survey from Indian and Pre Aristotelian philosophy to the Logic of John Stuart Mill Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Logic     Logic      …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Logic — Pro Entwickler: Apple Inc. Aktuelle Version: 8.0.2 (20. Mai 2008) Betriebssystem: Mac OS X Kategorie …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • LOGIC — (Heb. חָכְמַת הַדִּבּוּר or מְלֶאכֶת הַהִגַּיוֹן), the study of the principles governing correct reasoning and demonstration. The term logic, according to Maimonides, is used in three senses: to refer to the rational faculty, the intelligible in… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • logic — LÓGIC, Ă, logici, ce s.f., adj. I. s.f. 1. Ştiinţă a demonstraţiei, al cărei obiect este stabilirea condiţiilor corectitudinii gândirii, a formelor şi a legilor generale ale raţionării corecte. ♢ Logică generală = logică clasică, de tradiţie… …   Dicționar Român

  • logic — lo‧gic [ˈlɒdʒɪk ǁ ˈlɑː ] noun [uncountable] 1. COMMERCE commercial/​economic/​industrial logic a way of thinking and making good judgements that is connected to a particular area of business, the economy etc: • Their takeover bid appears to have… …   Financial and business terms

  • Logic — Log ic, n. [OE. logike, F. logique, L. logica, logice, Gr. logikh (sc. te chnh), fr. logiko s belonging to speaking or reason, fr. lo gos speech, reason, le gein to say, speak. See {Legend}.] 1. The science or art of exact reasoning, or of pure… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • logic —    Logic is the study of the correct way of reasoning. It is a prescriptive discipline rather than a merely descriptive one (psychology describes how we actually do reason). The two main methods for describing how we should think are the… …   Christian Philosophy

  • logic — [läj′ik] n. [ME logike < OFr logique < L logica < Gr logikē ( technē), logical (art) < logikos, of speaking or reasoning < logos, a word, reckoning, thought < legein, to speak, choose, read < IE base * leg̑ , to gather > L …   English World dictionary

  • Logic — es una herramienta multiuso desarrollada bajo licencia pública de Mozilla Frontal. Logic de …   Wikipedia Español

  • logic — ► NOUN 1) reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity. 2) the ability to reason correctly. 3) (the logic of) the course of action following as a necessary consequence of. 4) a system or set of principles underlying… …   English terms dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”