General Logic: An Introductory Survey

655 Pages·1959·6.3 MB·English

by  Ralph M. Eaton

LOGIC

AN
INTRODUCTORY
SURVEY
by
RALPH M. EATON
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
Copyright 1931 Charles Scribner’s Sons; renewal copyright
© 1959 Alice Virginia Eaton Blair.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form without the permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons.
F-7.68 [M]
Printed in the United States of America
PREFACE
This text-book presupposes no knowledge of logic on the
part of the reader. It is written with the elementary, but in¬
telligent, student in mind. I have striven to cover the whole
subject simply and clearly, especially to show the unity of
the classical Aristotelian tradition with contemporary mathe¬
matical logic. The book is eclectic, a statement of ideas which
have become—or are fast becoming—the common property of
all logicians. It represents no school, and has no philosoph¬
ical axe to grind.
Part III, which deals with mathematical logic, is indepen¬
dent of Parts I, II, and IV, and may be omitted by those
who are not interested in this subject. Some teachers may
prefer to start with Part II, which develops from the begin¬
ning the theories of the syllogism, immediate inference, hypo¬
thetical and disjunctive reasoning, definition, classification,
terms, propositions, and so on, as they appear in current
text-books, though the exposition departs somewhat from the
usual order. Part I is more general. It introduces the central
concepts of logic in a way that covers both the classical tra¬
dition and the more recent mathematical developments.
But it should be intelligible to the student before he has read
the later parts of the book. Part IV treats of induction.
Exercises covering both the syllogistic logic and mathematical
logic are given in Appendix B.
To my friend, Professor H. M. Sheffer, of Harvard, I am
deeply indebted for criticisms and suggestions, especially on
Part III.
Ralph M. Eaton.

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
This volume by the late Professor Eaton is being re¬
issued because of many requests. It is unchanged in¬
ternally, for copies of the earlier printings are still in
use. There have been several suggestions that cor¬
rections be made, however, and they appear in the Cor¬
rigenda preceding the Table of Contents. We are
indebted to Professor William T. Parry, of the Uni¬
versity of Buffalo, for most of these items.