Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic

Originally published in 1881. STUDIES AND EXERCISES IN FORMAL LOGIC- INCLUDING GENERALISATION OF LOGICAL PROCESSES IN THEIll APPLICATION TO COMPLEX INFERENCES by JOHN NEVILLE KEYNES. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION: IN this edition many of the sections have been re-written and a good deal of new matter has been introduced. The following are some of the more important modifications. In Part I a new definition of connotative name is proposed, in the hope that some misunderstanding may thereby be avoided siiicl the treatment of negative names has been revised. In Part II the problem of the import of judgments and propositions in its various aspects is dealt with in much more detail than before, and greater importance is attached to distinctions of imulality. Wfrty in consequence of this, the treatment of conditional and hypothetical propositions has been modified. 1 have partially re-written the chapter on the existential import of propositions in order to meet some recent criticisms and to explain my position more clearly. Many other minor changes in Part II have been made. Amongst the changes in Part III are a more systematic treatment of the process of the indirect reduction of syllogisms, and the introduction of a chapter on the characteristics of inference. An appendix on the fundamental laws of thought has been added and the treatment of complex propositions which previously constituted Part IV of the book has now been placed in an appendix. The reader of this edition will perceive my indebtedness to Sigwari s Logic. I have received valuable help from Professor J. S. Mackenzie and from my son, Mr J. M. Keynes arid I cannot express too strongly the debt I once more owe to Mr W. E. Johnson, who by his criticisms has enabled me to improve my exposition in many parts of the book, and also to avoid some errors. J. N. KEYNES. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 1. IN addition to a somewhat detailed exposition of certain portions of what may be called the book-work of formal logic, the following pages contain a number of problen. s worked out in detail and unsolved problems, by means of which the student may test his command over logical processes. In the expository portions of Parts I, II, and III, dealing respectively with terms, propositions, and syllogisms, the traditional lines are in the main followed, though with certain modifications e. g., in the systematisation of immediate inferences, and in several points of detail in connexion with the syllogism. For purposes of illustration Eulers diagrams are employed to a greater extent than is usual in English manuals. In Part IV, which contains a generalisation of logical processes in their application to complex inferences, a some what new departure is taken. So far as I am aware this part constitutes the first systematic attempt that has been made to deal with formal reasonings of the most complicated character without the aid of mathematical or other symbols of operation, and without abandoning the ordinary non-cquational or predic ative form of proposition. This attempt has on the whole met with greater success than I had anticipated and I believe that the methods formulated will be found to be both as easy and as effective as the symbolical methods of Boole arid his followers. The book concludes with a general and sure method of solution of what Professor Jevons called the in orse problem, and which he himself seemed to regard as soluble only by a series of guesses...