Conceptions of logic

Most treatises on logic begin with a discursion on the difficulty of defining the subject. Nevertheless, a definition is felt to be necessary. Here is a short summary of the Definitions of logic that logicians throughout history have attempted, arranged in approximate chronological order.

See the article Logic for another.

• The tool for distinguishing between the true and the false (Averroes).
• The science of reasoning, teaching the way of investigating unknown truth in connection with a thesis (Robert Kilwardy).
• The art whose function is to direct the reason lest it err in the manner of inferring or knowing (John Poinsot).
• The art of conducting reason well in knowing things (Antoine Arnauld).
• The right use of reason in the inquiry after truth (Isaac Watts).
• The Science, as well as the Art, of reasoning (Richard Whately).
• The science of the operations of the understanding which are subservient to the estimation of evidence (John Stuart Mill).
• The science of the laws of discursive thought (James McCosh).
• The science of the most general laws of truth (Gottlob Frege).
• The science which directs the operations of the mind in the attainment of truth (George Hayward Joyce).
• The branch of philosophy concerned with analysing the patterns of reasoning by which a conclusion is drawn from a set of premisses (Collins English Dictionary)
• The formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning (Penguin Encyclopedia).

== References

• Frege, G. (1897) Logic, transl. Long, P. & White, R., Posthumous Writings * Joyce, G.H. Principles of Logic, London 1908
• Kilwardy, R. The Nature of Logic, from De Ortu Scientarum, transl. Kretzman, in Kretzmann N. & Stump E., The Cambridge Translation of Medieval Philosophical Texts, Vol I. Cambridge 1988, pp. 262 ff.)

McCosh, J., The Laws of Discursive Thought, London 1870. Mill, J.S. A System of Logic, (8th edition) London 1904. Poinsot, J., 'Outlines of Formal Logic', from his Ars Logica Lyons 1637, ed. and transl. F.C. Wade, 1955. Watts, I., Logick, 1725. Whateley, R., Elements of Logic.