Elements of Logic: An Integrative Approach

Summary

Chapter 1: The Study of Logic

Logic is the reason for the reasonable. It is about finding the true relationship between things.
Causes, implications, conditions and syntactical rules are being studied in order to find out the truth
about things. Logic serves as the skeletal structure that enables the mind to grasp the actual states of
affairs of the world.

Logic and Judgment

Meaning is grasped by the act of judgment and through judgment concepts are formed.
Judgment is the process of seizing a present object in terms of the ideas associated to it, it is the concept
assigned to the reality of an object.

The senses served as linked to the reality of the world. In the process of thinking, the mind
organizes the data that pass through the senses. This process results to the formation of an insight
which means that one arrives at after relating or associating the data that enters the mind.

Correct judgment arrived by way of an efficient method of inference. Truth simply appears, it
must be discovered by means of certain logical mechanisms and inference is one of these mechanisms.
It concerns the process of arriving at the truth. To infer is to simply put forward an argument in order to
assert claims and claims are valid if they are logical, that is, they followed the rules on inference.

Logic and Thought

Logic is the process by which we systematize our way of knowing the truth. It determines the
accuracy of our judgments and uses in a systemic way certain principles, rules, and methods. The
validity or legitimacy of a judgment is one that is verified by means of experience. The meaning of
experience is revealed by the senses. Logic guarantees certainty and exactitude, and thus, right
judgment on what the world really is.

Logic as Philosophy

Logic and Metaphysics

Metaphysics is the study of being. It is an inquiry into the nature of reality.

Aristotle: Being is Substance

Substance consists of matter and form. Being real means having both matters, the material
upon which being is made, and forms, the inner governing principle that gives each being its shape.

St. Thomas Aquinas: Esse is Existence

Aquinas suggested that it is esse that gives perfection to beings, making them real. Any
substance is real because it exists, thus, possessing perfection. This perfection is derived from God, who
is Pure Esse or Pure Existence.

Logic and Common Sense

Common sense refers to our capacity to make judgments based on perceived knowledge. This is
naturally and universally accepted. Common sense dictates that data and facts do not lie as the senses
picture them out, a valid judgment is arrived at.
G.E. Moore: A Pioneer in 20th Century Analytic Philosophy
Moore listed some obvious truths such as There exists at this time a living human body which is
my body, My body has existed continuously on or near the earth, at various distance from or in
contact with other existing things, including other living human beings. He asserts that these
statements are obvious to the human intellect and are held to be generally and naturally true.

Logic and Argumentation

To analyze arguments, claims, grounds, warrants and backing is needed. Claims are an assertion
about the truth of something.

The basis of claim that is made is called a ground. Any ground must be some empirical data or
experience that serves as evidence for the veracity of ones claim. Data are gathered.

A warrants supports, justifies, or legitimizes a claim. It guarantees the truth of the claim by
pointing out some obvious results or consequents.

In terms of an underlying principle or background, backing would validate a claim theoretically,

providing a basic rule, law, or principle.

Example:
Claim:

Climate change is a threat to the existence of mankind.

Ground:

The ozone layer has a hole as big as Antartica due to massive Carbon Dioxide
emissions from industries, transportation, and agriculture.

Warrant:

Average earth temperatures will soar by 2.5 degrees Celcius.

Logic as Science

Logic and the Scientific Method

Galileo: Father of Modern Science

Modern science entails the logic of discovery.

Newton
Suggested that modern science must be freed from the speculative nature of
metaphysics. Knowledge must be based on firm ground. In order to produce legitimate results,
the scientist must put nature to experiments, systems, and methods.
 Being a form of science, logic investigates the formal structure of propositions and
arguments. Logic deals with inference, both mediate and immediate in order to see the relation
between propositions and their premises.

Logic and Analytic Philosophy

Analytic philosophy emanated from the seminal works of the German philosopher
Gottlob Frege. The analytical school is the philosophical tradition that uses logical theory in
understanding language, reality, and the nature of human knowledge. For Frege, sense is
formal, and thus linguistic; while meaning is referential or objective. A word is a sign whose
meaning is the object.

Ludwig Wittgenstein, through his famous Tractatus logico-philosophicus, explains the

relation between language, logic, and reality. The language is said to picture reality. Language
is a picture of a fact. For language to be a valid picture of reality, it must conform to the rules of
logic.

Chapter 2: Terms and Meanings

Meanings

The Meaning of a Concept

Meaning is a mental phenomenon. It serves a copy of an instance of any particular
object. Meaning denotes the object. The object therefore is represented mentally by way of
this meaning. When this meaning is uttered, it becomes a term.

Ideas are mental realities. Thus, ideas represent the objects of perception. After
perceiving the object, one forms in the mind an image of that object. This sense image registers
some meaning, a meaning produced by perception. This image is associated with other images,
thereby creating a coherent structure.

Types of Meaning

Intuitive and abstractive

Intuitive Meanings
- Direct observation results to meanings that are intuitive. It is a type of perception
that is immediate.
- It directly points to the object. This kind of idea is something that is readily available
after one sees or feels something.
- Senses get a direct experience of the object.

Abstractive Meanings
- Those borne out of concepts that the mind gives birth to.
- Emerge after the process of judgment.
- Judgments on the nature of an object in relation to other entities result to
abstractive meanings.
- Meanings are produced from the process of reasoning.

Contrary and Contradictory

 Contradictory Meanings
- Ones that exclude each other. This suggests that a given meaning is the exact
opposite of another.
o Example: Existence and nothingness; evil and non-evil; violence and non-
violence

Contrary Meanings
- Express or represent the two extremes among objects of the same type, not
necessarily the exact opposite.
o Example: Joy and suffering; Success and failure; Beautiful and ugly

Meanings direct us to the existence of objects. To clearly identify objects, there is a

need to define them. A definition explains the very nature of the object. Definitions brings us
into the substantial attribute of an object.

Definitions

Definition as Explanation
A definition is simply the explanation of the nature of the thing. It expresses what a
thing is as a thing. It also puts forward the knowledge about what a thing is.

Two Parts of Definition:

- A definition consists of the symbol being defined;
- The symbol or group of symbols used to express the meaning of the symbol being
defined
Definiendum refers to the word being defined
Definiens the word or group of words used to explain the meaning of definiendum.

Definitions in Use