ASSIGNMENT

DATE:

LOGIC, DEFINITIONS,

SCOPE & FUNCTIONS BBA 4th ( Morning) - A

SAMAN REHMAN ROLL # 01

M. AAMER WAQAS ROLL # 02

27th JANUARY, 2013

I N S T I T U T E O F M A N A G E M E N T S T U D I E S - U O P

LOGIC

DEFINITIONS:

"Logic is the armory of reason, furnished with all defensive and

offensive weapons. There are syllogisms, long swords; enthymemes,

short daggers; dilemmas, two-edged swords that cut on both sides;

sorites, chain-shot."

-Thomas Fuller, "The General Artist," 1661

“To discover truths is the task of all sciences; it falls to logic to discern

the laws of truth. ... I assign to logic the task of discovering the laws of

truth, not of assertion or thought.”

- GottlobFrege (1848-1925)

"Logic", the name of a discipline which analyzes the meaning of the

concepts common to all the sciences, and establishes the general laws

governing the concepts.”

- Alfred Tarski (1901-1983)

“The science of reasoning, teaching the way of investigating unknown

truth in connection with a thesis.”

- Robert Kilwardby

“The formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and

correct reasoning .”

-Penguin Encyclopedia

“The systematic use of symbolic and mathematical techniques to

determine the forms of valid deductive argument.”

-Oxford English Dictionary

http://www.brainyquot

e.com/words/lo/logic18

5714.html

What is Logic ?

The science or art of

exact reasoning, or of

pure and formal

thought, or of the laws

according to which the

processes of pure

thinking should be

conducted; the science

of the formation and

application of general

notions; the science of

generalization,

judgment, classification,

reasoning, and

systematic

arrangement, correct

reasoning.

WHAT IS LOGIC ?

“LOGIC tries to evaluate arguments by checking whether the

premises, the “starting points”, are jointly plausible; and whether what is

followed from them in the conclusion really does follow them. Logic is the

process of proper inference, a system of proper thinking, of arriving at proper

conclusions. Proper thinking in logic is based upon principles that govern the

validity of arguments. To reason effectively, we need to avoid contradiction and

accept beliefs that are adequately defined. Logic provides the appropriate

standards by which we can determine if our beliefs are consistent with each other

and confirmed by evidence.

EXPLANATION :

Logic is the study of reason. It is the study of rational ways of

establishing conclusions. Logic encompasses many kinds of study. Some say that

logic is the study of truth, so it is the most basic and fundamental science. Logic

is the science of truth and tries to discover the truth about truth.

Others say that logic is concerned with thought, and thus tries to discover the

“laws of thought”. Logic explains what people ought to think. It tells us what is

right thinking. In other words it is the ethics of thought and belief, as it separates

right thinking from wrong thinking.

Yet, some say that logic is concerned with language. This is because logic tries to

understand the logical form of statements and structural relations between

sentences. However logic is concerned with all these three areas because they are

very closely connected. Logic is thus concerned with thought, which is expressed

in language and whose truth has to be proven.

It is the study of propositions. It studies human cognition and reasoning

and also the general structure of the world. It studies declarative sentences, which

expresses propositions. It is the science of how to evaluate arguments and

Origin of LOGIC

Middle English logik,

from Anglo-French,

from Latin logica ,

from Greek logikē,

First Known Use

12th century

Logic is the field of

philosophy.

philo—love of,

affinity for, liking

of.

sophia—wisdom

reasoning. It allows us to distinguish correct reasoning from poor reasoning. It helps us reason correctly. Without

logic we would not be able to arrive at the truth or sound beliefs.

SCOPE / FUNCTIONS OF LOGIC:

Scope of logic is very wide. It covers all types of knowledge related to art and science. The nature of logic is

like a tree and all the other fields are its branches. It is the main spring of all knowledge, because logic provides

reasoning for the existence of that knowledge.

Logicians are divided into 3 classes as they hold that logic is concerned:

1) With names and things only.

2) With the form of thought only.

3) With thought that represents reality.

1. Logic is concerned with names only – It has found few defenders. It is taught by the French

philosopher Condillac (1715-1780). He held that the process of reasoning consists in verbal transformations

only. The meaning of the conclusion is identical with that of the original proposition.

2. The theory that logic is concerned with the form of thought – Is irrespective of its relation to

reality was taught by Hamilton (1788-1856) and Mansel (1820-1871). Both of them believed that logic is

not concerned with the truth of our thoughts, but with their consistency. Hamilton says:

“Logic is conversant with the form of thought, to the exclusion of the matter.”

A distinction is drawn between ‘formal truth’ i.e. self-consistency and ‘material truth,’ i.e. conformity with

the object. It is said that logic is concerned with formal truth.

3. Logic deals with thought that represents reality: According to the third theory, logic deals

with thought as a means by which we attain the truth. John Stuart Mill claims that:

“logic is the theory of valid thought, not of thinking, but of correct thinking.”

The terms nominalist, conceptualist, and realist logicians are employed to denote these three classes. However, these

names, nominalist, conceptualist, and realist, have for centuries been used to distinguish three famous schools of

philosophy. These schools are divided from each other on a question, a basis, which unfortunately, has nothing to do

with the scope of logic.

Conceptualists/formalists: Hamilton, Mansel

Linguists/nominalists: Whatley

Realists/materialists: John Stuart Mill

Here is another definition of logic extracted from a text book (The Art and Science of Logic by Daniel Bonevac,

Mayfield Publishing Co., 1990):

Logic is the study of correct reasoning. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

founded the discipline of logic as a system of principles on which all other

knowledge rests. Indeed, logic pertains to all subjects, since people can reason

about anything they can think about. Politics, the arts, literature, business, the

sciences, and everyday problems are all subjects open to reasoning. Sometimes

the reasoning is good; sometimes not so good. People use logic to tell the

difference.

. . .

The twentieth century has witnessed remarkable advances in science and

technology that have improved the lives of vast numbers of people. These

applications of scientific method required a great deal of good and highly

sophisticated reasoning. But the twentieth century has also suffered the results of reasoning gone astray (political and

social disasters).

APPLICATION OF LOGIC:

1. LOGIC & SOCIAL STUDIES:

In the last generation the Instinctive logic of the social sciences was confronted with two tasks. On the one

hand, it had to show the distinctive peculiarity, the feasibility, and the necessity of history. On the other hand, it had

to show not only that there is, but also how there can be, a science of human action that aims at universally valid

cognition. There can be no doubt that a great deal has been accomplished for the solution of these two problems.

That these solutions are not "final" or "definitive" is evident, for as long as the human mind does not stop thinking,

striving, and inquiring, there is no such thing as "finality" and "definitiveness."

Logic does not describe

the psychology of

reasoning, with its

flashes of insight and

oversight; it prescribes

methods of justifying

reasoning,

The demand is repeatedly made by those who champion political ideals that cannot be defended by logical

argumentation that thinking in the field of the social sciences be exempted from the regulative principles necessary to

all other thinking. This is a matter with which scientific thought, which considers itself bound by these logical

principles, is unable to concern itself.

2. ENGINEERING &

LOGIC:

Engineering and Logic for our present

purposes are to be construed liberally.

Engineering is about getting things done, generally building things which realize some preconceived purpose. Logic

is the sphere of formal a priori truth, encompassing mathematics, and crucially for engineering, all that supports the

construction and exploitation of abstract or mathematical models. Engineering is conceived as a discipline which is

to be increasingly dominated by modeling techniques which permit the construction and evaluation of a design prior

to physical fabrication of its implementation.

The increasingly dominant intellectual content of engineering problem solving, the business of modeling, is at

bottom pure logic. Software supporting these intellectual activities will be more effective when it is built on solid

logical foundations.

This prospective future development may be related to the digital revolution which we are all now expecting or

experiencing. The logical revolution, as yet scarcely anticipated, flows from the same underlying imperatives about

the way in which information must be represented if we are to be able to manipulate it effectively.

3. LOGIC & MATHEMATICS:

Logic and math work well together because they are both independent from reality and they are tools that are used to

help people make sense of the world. For example, reality may contain 3 apples and 4 bananas, but the ideas of 3 and

4 are abstractions and math is made up of such abstractions. When they get complicated – at the level of algebra,

calculus etc. – logic can be used to simplify the complexities.

The Engineering Logic theme concerns

both the exploitation of logic in the future of

engineering disciplines, and an approach to

exploitation and automation of logic which

considers this an engineering problem rather

than a fundamental research problem.

4. LOGIC & SCIENCE:

Science also uses logic to a great advantage. Like mathematics, science uses abstractions to make sense of the world

and then applies logic to these abstractions. Science tries to understand reality by:

1) Reducing reality to a set of abstractions called a model

2) Working within the model to reach a conclusion

3) Applying the conclusion to reality.

Logic is invaluable during the second step, and the conclusions drawn are logical conclusions. The areas of science

that rely heavily on logic are quantifiable sciences, such as physics, engineering, and chemistry. The qualitative

sciences – biology, physiology, and medicine – use logic but with less certainty. The social sciences – such as

sociology, psychology and economics – tend to rely less on pure logic because their models have the least direct

correlation with reality.

5. LOGIC & COMPUTER(S):

A huge part of the computer revolution rests firmly on logic. Every action a

computer performs is due to the complex structure of logical instructions. At

the hardware level logic helps with the design of complex circuits. At the

software level computer languages are based on logic.

An important functions of logic in computer programming are:

AND Gate.

OR Gate.

NOR Gate.

XOR Gate etc…

“Aristotle invented logic as a method for comprehending the

basic structure of reason.”

“Philosophy relies on models of

reality to help provide explanations

for what we see.”

CONCLUSION:

The importance of the study of logic is to help one learn to think properly and focus the mind so one can come up

with logical solutions. If one can learn to be logical, they can be more rational in their decisions. Using logic also

helps an individual adapt and make appropriate decisions. Studying logic is important since it helps people with

critical thinking.

Through critical thinking, we acquire a means of assessing and upgrading our ability to judge well. It enables us to

go into virtually any situation and to figure out the logic of whatever is happening in that situation. It provides a way

for us to learn from new experiences through the process of continual self-assessment. Critical thinking, then,

enables us to form sound beliefs and judgments, and in doing so, provides us with a basis for a “rational and

reasonable” emotional life.

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If a human being understands the logic and reasoning behind a given aspect of

reality, then he/she may be able to adapt and grow, using the same reasoning, in

times of difficulty.