Table Of ContentLf?£
THE TEACH YOURSELF BOOKS
LOGIC
Uniform with this volume
and in the same series
Teach Yourself: Analytical Psychology
Teach Yourself Anthropology
Teach Yourself Astronomy
Teach Yourself: The Christian Faith
Teach Yourself Christian Theology
Teach Yourself Ethics
The Teach Yourself Guidebook to Western Thought
Teach Yourself: History of Philosophy
Teach Yourself: History of Religions
Teach Yourself Philosophy
Teach Yourself: Philosophy of Religion
Teach Yourself Political Thought
Teach Yourself: Preaching
Teach Yourself Psychology
Teach Yourself: Roman Catholicism
Teach Yourself to Study
Teach Yourself to Think
Teach Yourself: Zen—A Way of Life
TEACH YOURSELF
LOGIC
By
A. A. LUCE
M.C., D.D., Litt.D.
Trinity College, Dublin
THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES PRESS LTD
st. Paul’s house Warwick lane
LONDON EC4
First printed 19j8
This impression 1966
©
Copyright
The English Universities Press Ltd
1958
Printed in Great Britain for the English Universities Press Ltd
by Butler & Tanner Ltd., Frome and London
PREFACE
Logic can be taught in various ways, and a teacher soon
finds by experience the method that best suits his own
style. The following hints are for those who are teaching
themselves from this textbook. The book follows the
natural articulations of the subject-matter, and it can be
read through solidly from beginning to end. For be¬
ginners, however, I recommend the selective reading,
indicated below, which concentrates first on the outline
structure or skeleton of syllogistic Logic, before going on
to the complete, continuous reading. This plan of reading
keeps the structure of Logic steadily before the learner’s
eye; the details are seen in perspective, and the skeleton
is gradually clothed with flesh and blood.
The plan would work out as follows : Glance through
the first chapter and get the general notion. From
Chapters II, III, IV, and V select pages 12-18, 34-55,
and 64-95 for slow, patient, and thorough study. Do
exercises as you go along, your own or from those printed
at the end of the chapter. Understand as you read,
and do not read far ahead of what you have under¬
stood. From these selections you will learn enough about
terms to understand the structure of the proposition, and
enough about propositions to grasp the structure of the
syllogism, and enough about syllogisms to be able to prove
the Special Rules of the Figures. When you can prove
those rules with ease, you have grasped the outline structure
and skeleton of syllogistic Logic.
That done, go back to Chapter I and read the whole
book continuously. The gaps will now close. The sections
VI PREFACE
on the technical classifications of terms, and non-categorical
propositions, etc., omitted at the first reading, will now
come easily to you, and you can pass on to the study of the
Moods and Reduction, and thence to the more miscel¬
laneous contents of Chapters VII and VIII. Chapters IX
and X point on to more advanced studies and should be
left for the last.
May reminiscence be permitted here and a piece of
personal experience ? I taught myself Logic in my youth
from a small old-fashioned manual. It was not written
for logicians, but for the non-specialized pass-man, and
without unnecessary technicalities or trimmings it set out
the basic and timeless truths of traditional Logic, some
knowledge of which is essential, in my opinion, to a
consciously correct and rational use of our mother-tongue.
I found the subject difficult at first; it was not like any
of my school subjects ; but when I had crossed the thres¬
hold, an inner door swung open. I took a step forward
in self-knowledge, and thought and speech became self-
conscious. Like Moliere’s M. Jourdain who found that
he had long been speaking prose, I found that I had long
been forming propositions. I said to myself, “ Yes, I
form propositions when my tongue does more than wag.
I form them out of terms. I say something about some¬
thing. Therefore I ought to be able, in serious talk, to
pin-point those two parts of my proposition. I ought to
know exactly what I am talking about, and exactly what
I am saying about it.” Soon inference, too, became self-
conscious. From a child I had inferred and reasoned;
now I began to do so wittingly, aware of the traps and the
pitfalls, and aware of a norm and an ideal.
In lecturing on Logic to University men and women,
over and over again I have seen the same door swing open,
