Logic (from the Greek λογική, logikē) refers to both the study of modes of reasoning (which are valid and which are fallacious) and the use of valid reasoning. In the latter sense, logic is used in most intellectual activities, including philosophy and science, but in the first sense, is primarily studied in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science. It examines general forms that arguments may take. In mathematics, it is the study of valid inferences within some formal language. Logic is also studied in argumentation theory.
Logic was studied in several ancient civilizations, including India, China, and Greece. In the west, logic was established as a formal discipline by Aristotle, who gave it a fundamental place in philosophy. The study of logic was part of the classical trivium, which also included grammar and rhetoric.
Logic is often divided into three parts, inductive reasoning, abductive reasoning, and deductive reasoning.
Read more about Logic: The Study of Logic, History
Famous quotes containing the word logic:
“There is no morality by instinct.... There is no social salvation—in the end—without taking thought; without mastery of logic and application of logic to human experience.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
““... We need the interruption of the night
To ease attention off when overtight,
To break our logic in too long a flight,
And ask us if our premises are right.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Neither Aristotelian nor Russellian rules give the exact logic of any expression of ordinary language; for ordinary language has no exact logic.”
—Sir Peter Frederick Strawson (b. 1919)