Logic, symbolic
Logic, symbolic
or mathematical logic, or logistic, is the name given to the treatment of formal logic by means of a formalized logical language or calculus whose purpose is to avoid the ambiguities and logical inadequacy of ordinary language. It is best characterized, not as a separate subject, but as a new and powerful method in formal logic. Foreshadowed by ideas of Leibniz, J. H. Lambert, and others, it had its substantial historical beginning in the Nineteenth Century algebra of logic (q. v.), and received its contemporary form at the hands of Frege, Peano, Russell, Hilbert, and others. Advantages of the symbolic method are greater exactness of formulation, and power to deal with formally more complex material. See also logistic system. — A. C.
C. I. Lewis,
A Survey of Symbolic Logic, Berkeley, Cal., 1918.
Lewis and Langford,
Symbolic Logic, New York and London, 1932.
S. K. Langer,
An Introduction to Symbolic Logic, Boston and New York, or London, 1937.
W. V. Quine,
Mathematical Logic, New York, 1940.
A. Tarski,
Introduction to Logic and to the Methodology of Deductive Sciences, New York, 1941.
W. V. Quine,
Elementary Logic, Boston and New York, 1941.
A. Church,
A bibliography of symbolic logic, The Journal of Symbolic Logic, vol. 1 (1936) pp 121-218, and vol. 3 (1938), pp. 178-212.
I. M. Bochenski,
Nove Lezioni di Logica Simbolica. Rome, 1938.
R. Carnap,
Abriss der Logistik, Vienna, 1929.
H. Scholz,
Geschichte der Logik, Berlin, 1931.
Hilbert and Ackermann,
Grundzuge der theoretischen Logik, 2nd edn., Berlin, 1938.