An Introduction to Logic (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from An Introduction to LogicIf an apology that precedes it could mitigate an offence, I should be inclined to convert my preface into an apology for publishing this book. Progress, and the hope of progress, in logical investigations, have lain perhaps during the last three generations chiefly in two directions, either of analysing more closely the processes of thought exhibited in the sciences, or of determining what know ledge is, and the relation of the knowing mind to what it knows. Though I have been compelled to deal in some degree with the first of these questions, I am well aware that it demands a scientific knowledge which I do not possess; the second I have not attempted systematically to discuss. The aim of the following book is more modest. There is a body of what might be called traditional doctrine in Logic, which is not only in fact used by itself as an instrument of intellectual discipline, but ought also to be in some degree mastered by those who would proceed to the higher and abstruser problems. It is of this traditional doctrine that Benjamin Jowett is recorded to have said, that Logic is neither a science, nor an art, but a dodge. I could perhaps best describe the motive with which this work was begun, as the desire to expound the traditional Logic in a way that did not deserve this accusation. The accusation was doubtless provoked by the attempt to force into a limited number of forms processes of thought, many of which can only with pretence and violence be made to fit them: an attempt, it may be added, at least as characteristic of 'Inductive Logic' as of any other.In the course of centuries, the tradition has become divergent, and often corrupt. In this difficulty, I have ventured, like one or two other modern writers, to go back largely to its source in Aristotle.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com