Logical form: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:55, 22 June 2008

Revision as of 20:20, 29 July 2008

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That the concept of form is fundamental to logic was already recognized in ancient times. [[Aristotle]] was probably the first to employ variable letters to represent valid inferences (in the [[Prior analytics]]). (For which reason [[Jan Łukasiewicz | Łukasiewicz]] says that the introduction of variables was 'one of Aristotle's greatest inventions').

According to the followers of Aristotle (such as [[Ammonius the PeripateticHermiae|Ammonius]]), only the logical principles stated in schematic terms belong to logic, and not those given in concrete terms. The concrete terms ''man'', ''mortal'' &c are analogous to the substitution values of the schematic placeholders 'A', 'B', 'C', which were called the 'matter' (Greek ''hyle'', Latin ''materia'') of the argument.

==See also==