Philosophical views about logicDr. Akhlas AhmedIBT, City Campus

Feb 11th, 2017Lecture # 4

Philosophy:The love for wisdom or knowledge.

Etymology: Greek wordPhilos means loveSophia means wisdom/ Knowledge

Philosophy: Aristotle viewed…Thinking which aims at maximum connected truth about all available experiences.

The medieval-scholastics definition considers philosophy as “the science of the ultimate causes of things”.

These causes are the objects of philosophical inquiry, and

the associated goal is to know these causes with certitude.

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.

It is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.

It is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.

Classification of Philosophy:Philosophy is classified into two parts:1. Practical, and 2. Speculative.

The Practical philosophy includes; Logic as the science

and art of correct thinking; Ethics which is the study of standards of right and wrong and Axiology defined as the nature, types criteria and status of human values.

While Speculative philosophy includes; Epistemology, Metaphysics, Aesthetics, Rational Psychology, Social Philosophy, Philosophy of man, Theodicy and Political Philosophy.

Definitions of Logic:Bachelor, 1966 Logic is the science and art of correct thinking. McCall, 1971 Logic as a speculative science, is concerned primarily with what is correct reasoning and why it is correct. Cruz, 1995 Logic is understood as science and arts of correct thinking.Gualdo, 2000 Logic as an art, it guides man’s reasoning so he can proceed with order and ease and without error in the constructive activity of making definitions of terms, propositions and inferences.Resnik, 1970, Logic is considered a science for 3 major reasons 1. As body of certain and proven knowledge.2. This body of knowledge is obtained and arranged in a

systematic manner.3. It is objective and possesses “general principles of

argumentation and proof, which can be formulated precisely and communicated to others”.

Divisions of Logic:

MENTAL ACT MENTAL PRODUCT

EXTERNAL SIGN

LOGICAL ISSUE

SIMPLE APPREHENSION

IDEA TERM PREDICABILITY

JUDGMENT ENUNCIATION PROPOSITION PREDICATION

REASONING ARGUMENT SYLLOGISM INFERENCE

Mental Acts: Logic may be divided according to the Tree Acts of the

Intellect. These are:

1.Simple apprehension, 2.judgement and 3.Reasoning

Simple apprehension is the first act of the intellect wherein by the acts of our senses we mentally grasp a thing without affirming or denying anything about it.

Before the mind can proceed to determine the truth or falsity of anything it has first to apprehend that something. This act of the mind is what is generally called simple apprehension, which is an act whereby the minds understands the general meaning of a thing without affirming or denying anything about it.

McCall, 1971 An act whereby understands the essence or general meaning of a thing without affirming of denying anything about it.

Faculty: sense of touch. I touch something sticky.

Sensation: The texture arouse my sensation or instinct to touch. I sense that the texture is sensational that please my senses.

Sense image: I sense now an image of a pleasant object with its sticky texture.Imagination: I imagine this sticky object.Phantasm: the result of my imagination is sense knowledge of a definite object with sticky texture.

Abstraction: My mind mirrors or sees the essence of that STICKY object by disregarding the physical characteristics or accidental features. My intellect now understands or apprehends the representation of that essence.

Idea: The mental representation is an idea, my idea of a JAM.

Term: I express this idea orally or in writing and say JAM. I write JAM.Predictability: The term “JAM” can be predicated or related to other terms like STRAWBERRY JAM, GUAVA JAM, ORANGE JAM, RASPBERRY JAM, etc.

Faculty: sense of smell. I smell something unpleasant.

Sensation: The odor arouse my sensation or instinct to smell. I sense that the odor is sensational that please my senses.

Sense image: I sense now an image of a pleasant object with its unpleasant odor.Imagination: I imagine this unpleasant smell.Phantasm: the result of my imagination is sense knowledge of a definite FOOD which is unpleasant to smell.

Abstraction: My mind mirrors or sees the essence of that unique fruit by disregarding the physical characteristics or accidental features. My intellect now understands or apprehends the representation of that essence.

Idea: The mental representation is an idea, my idea of DURIAN

Term: I express this idea orally or in writing and say DURIAN. I write DURIAN.Predictability: The term “DURIAN” can be predicated or related to other terms like DURIAN CANDY, DURIAN CAKE, DURIAN JUICE, DURIAN ICE CREAM, etc.

Faculty: sense of sight. I see some people wearing uniform.

Sensation: The sight arouses my sensation or power to see.

Sense image: I now see an image of people in uniform of different colours and stylesImagination: I make vivid pictures of these young people in my imaginationPhantasm: the product of my imagination is a sense of knowledge of particular person in uniform.

Abstraction: My intellect disregards and draws/extracts from the physical features of those persons in uniform.

Term: I express this idea orally or in writing. So, I say or write “PRIEST”Predictability: The term “PRIEST” can be predicated or related to other terms like diocesan priests, Benedictine monk, religious priest,  Franciscan friar.

Judgement is the second act of the intellect wherein we join two understood terms obtain or acquired in simple apprehension and deconstruct them either by affirmation or by negation.

Reasoning is the third act of the intellect wherein we draw conclusion from a given act of validity.

Q/A