Logic

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

THE Author is gratified that the demand for this work still continues. Logic is a favourite branch of Study in our days. Prejudices respecting it have passed away; its value as an important branch of Education is now admitted; and many master minds are leading the thoughtful, with increasing profit and pleasure, into its loftier and more abstruse developments. Still, for the young at least, an Elementary Treatise is necesssry. To meet this want in our first-class schools is the object kept constantly in view in this volume. It is at once simple and comprehensive. In addition to the numerous Examples and Exercises in former Editions, Diagrams have been introduced which represent the argument to the eye as in Euclid. The advantage of this must be obvious to all.

BATH, August 1864.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

Different meanings of the term Logic-Consequences of this diversity
-The proper business of Logic simply Reasoning-The elements
of which Reasoning is composed-The connexion subsisting be-
tween the parts of an Argument-Reasoning not confined to Dis-
putation-The office of the Logician different from that of the
Metaphysician or the Rhetorician-The Reasoning process univer-
sally the same Examples-Premises and Conclusion-An Act of
Reasoning, stated at full length, and in its regular order, called a
Syllogism-The validity of correct reasoning depends not on the
meaning of the words used, but on the connexion subsisting be-
tween the premises and the conclusion-Examples—The Univer-
sal Principle of Reasoning-The extended form of the Syllogism
not to be used on all occasions-Examples of conclusive argu-
ments as commonly used for the sake of despatch-Examples of
fallacious arguments -Object of Logic to construct and test valid
arguments; and to detect and expose fallacies-Logical rules and
instruments necessary for these purposes-Technical language em-
ployed in Logic not more difficult than in any other science-In
what respects Logic is a Science, and in what respects it is an Art.
History of Logic-Zeno the Eleatic -Sophists-Socrates-Euclid of
Megara-Plato-Aristotle-The fate of Aristotle's Manuscripts-
Futile controversies of the Middle Ages-Perversion of the Syllo-
gism-The revival of Letters-Erasmus and Luther; Ramus, Des
Cartes, and Leibnitz; expose the errors of the School-men-Lord
Bacon on logical studies-Locke's misapprehensions and mistakes
on this subject-Watt's Logic-Mill's "System of Logic, Ratio-
cinative and Inductive "—Archbishop Whately's "Elements of
Logic"-Present state and prospects of this branch of study,

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