Language and Logic in the Post-Medieval Period

ISBN-13: 9789027704641 / Angielski / Twarda / 1974 / 309 str.

E. J. Ashworth

Opis

Keckermann remarked of the sixteenth century, "never from the begin- ning of the world was there a period so keen on logic, or in which more books on logic were produced and studies oflogic flourished more abun- dantly than the period-in which we live. " 1 But despite the great profusion of books to which he refers, and despite the dominant position occupied by logic in the educational system of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries, very little work has been done on the logic of the post- medieval period. The only complete study is that of Risse, whose account, while historically exhaustive, pays little attention to the actual logical 2 doctrines discussed. Otherwise, one can tum to Vasoli for a study of humanism, to Munoz Delgado for scholastic logic in Spain, and to Gilbert and Randall for scientific method, but this still leaves vast areas untouched. In this book I cannot hope to remedy all the deficiencies of previous studies, for to survey the literature alone would take a life-time. As a result I have limited myself in various ways. In the first place, I con- centrate only on those matters which are of particular interest to me, namely theories of meaning and reference, and formal logic.

Spis treści

I/Historical Introduction.- 1. The Publication of Medieval Works.- 2. Scholasticism in Italy and Germany.- 3. Scholasticism in France and Spain.- 4. Humanism.- 5. Rudolph Agricola and His Influence.- 6. Petrus Ramus and His Influence.- 7. Seventeenth Century Logic: Eclecticism.- 8. Humanism and Late Scholasticism in Spain.- 9. Other Schools of Logic.- 10. A Note on Terminology.- II/Meaning and Reference.- I. The Nature of Logic.- 1. The Contents of Logical Text-books.- 2. The Definition of Logic.- 3. The Object of Logic.- II. Problems of Language.- 1. Terms: Their Definition and Their Main Divisions.- 2. The Relationship between Mental, Spoken and Written Terms.- 3. Other Divisions of Terms.- 4. Sense and Reference.- 5. Propositions and Their Parts.- 6. Sentence-Types and Sentence-Tokens.- 7. Complex Signifiables and Truth.- 8. Other Approaches to Truth.- 9. Possibility and Necessity.- II. Supposition Theory.- 1. Supposition, Acceptance and Verification.- 2. Proper, Improper, Relative and Absolute Supposition.- 3. Material Supposition.- 4. Simple Supposition.- 5. Natural Personal Supposition.- 6. Ampliation.- 7. Appellation.- III. Semantic Paradoxes.- 1. Problems Arising from Self-Reference.- 2. Solution One: Self-Reference Is Illegitimate.- 3. Solution Two: All Propositions Imply Their Own Truth.- 4. Solution Three: Insolubles Assert Their Own Falsity.- 5. Solution Four: Two Kinds of Meaning.- 6. Solution Five: Two Truth-Conditions.- 7. Later Writing on Insolubles.- III/Formal Logic. Part One: Unanalyzed Propositions.- I. The Theory of Consequence.- 1. The Definition of Consequence.- 2. The Definition of Valid Consequence.- 3. Formal and Material Consequence.- 4. ‘Ut Nunc’ Consequence.- 5. The Paradoxes of Strict Implication.- 6. Rules of Valid Consequence.- II. Propositional Connectives.- 1. Compound Propositions in General.- 2. Conditional Propositions.- 3A. Rules for Illative Conditionals.- 3B. Rules for Promissory Conditionals.- 4. Biconditionals.- 5. Conjunctions.- 6. Disjunctions.- 7. De Morgan’s Laws.- 8. Other Propositional Connectives.- III. An Analysis of the Rules Found in Some Individual Authors.- 1. Paris in the Early Sixteenth Century.- 2. Oxford in the Early Sixteenth Century.- 3. Germany in the Early Sixteenth Century.- 4. Spain in the Third Decade of the Sixteenth Century.- 5. Spain in the Second Part of the Sixteenth Century.- 6. Germany in the Early Seventeenth Century.- IV/ Formal Logic. Part Two: The Logic of Analyzed Propositions.- I. The Relationships Between Propositions.- 1. The Quality and Quantity of Propositions.- 2. Opposition.- 3. Equipollence.- 4. Simple and Accidental Conversion.- 5. Conversion by Contraposition.- II. Supposition Theory and Quantification.- 1. The Divisions of Personal Supposition.- 2. Descent and Ascent.- III. Categorical Syllogisms.- 1. Figures and Modes.- 2. How to Test the Validity of a Syllogism.- 3. Proof by Reduction.- 4. Syllogisms with Singular Terms.- Appendix/Latin Texts.- 1. Primary Sources.- 2. Secondary Sources on the History of Logic 1400–1650.- Index of names.