Elements of Logic and Formal Science (Classic Reprint)

Prefi oce THIS TEXT offers an elementary study of the science of logic and the philosophy of formal science. It has seemed clearer to keep these two subjects separated, since they deal with different problems; formal science, of course, makes use of logical principles in its method, but it is not the science of logic. This scheme also avoids the usual bad procedure of making inductive reasoning or the methods of nonformal science a part of logic. The procedure is bad since it necessitates formulating some definition of logic which is totally lacking in precision. Thus, the definition of logic as the science of correct inference involves the danger of including practically every science under logic, since every science states some of its laws in the form of inferences. In particular, probability-theory is not a branch of logic. A very exact definition of logic, due to Professor E. A. Singer, Jr., is employed throughout this book. Questions of nonformal science could not be handled adequately without adding another volume; but a chapter discussing the general problems of this branch of philosophy has been included to show the contrast between the formal and nonformal aspects of science. A lso, from the point of view of logic, considerable space is devoted to showing the applications of logic in other sciences, the conflicts which logic faces within itself and without itself, and the manner in which logical principles are sometimes altered to solve these difficulties. Such a discussion, of course, deals with the nonformal aspects of the science. Logic cannot be refuted by direct experimentation, needless to say; but it is indicated here how it may come to be altered in other ways. There is usually either an overemphasis or an underemphasis on terminology in logic texts. The method chosen here consists in introducing new terms when the necessity arises, rather t
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)