LOGIC. 77 



CHAPTER II. 



LOGIC. 



LOGIC, is that branch of knowledge which investigates the pro- 

 cess of Reasoning, and deduces rules for its guidance. The name 

 is from the Greek ^oyt*^, of the same meaning ; and this from a.oyoj, 

 which may signify reason, as well as discourse. Logic is often 

 defined " the Art of Reasoning ;" but in analyzing the process by 

 which correct conclusions are obtained, it equally merits the title of 

 a Science. The term Logic, in former times, was used in a much 

 wider sense, to include various subjects on which the reasoning 

 powers were employed : but this, as in the case of Rhetoric, is con- 

 founding the process with the materials on which it operates. The 

 study of Logic, aids us in forming correct conclusions ; in detecting 

 sophistry, fallacies, or false reasoning; and in rectifying our own 

 errors, as well as those of others. 



Zeno, of Elea, hence called the Eleatic, is the reputed inventor of 

 Logic, or rather of the art of disputation and sophistry ; and Euclid, 

 of Megara, a pupil of Socrates, and the founder of the Eristic school, 

 is said to have invented many fallacies, or specimens of false reason- 

 ing. To Archytas, of Tarentum, are attributed the ten Categories 

 of the ancients ; (topics under which all ideas may be classed) ; 

 viz. substance, quantity, quality, relation, action, passion, time, 

 place, situation, and habit. But the true inventor of Logic, was 

 Jlristotle ; who first investigated the process of correct reasoning, in 

 a satisfactory and scientific manner. His writings, after being lost 

 for a time, were afterwards found ; and in the fifth century they were 

 translated into Latin, by Boethius. His system was widely perverted 

 by the schoolmen of later times ; who, among other things, pretended 

 to investigate the laws of the material world, by mere logical, or 

 rather metaphysical speculations. 



These errors were broadly exposed and counteracted by Lord 

 Bacon ; who unfolded more fully the method of induction, or of 

 deriving conclusions from facts and experiments, instead of specula- 

 tions. As the schoolmen had styled Aristotle's treatise on Logic, 

 Organon, or the great instrument of reasoning ; Bacon styled his 

 work Novum Organum, or the new instrument: and this work is 

 believed by many learned men, though not by all, to have contributed 

 greatly towards the unprecedented advancement of the exact sciences, 

 in modern times. Dr. Watts has since written a valuable work, on 

 The Right Use of Reason; but the best treatise on this subject, is 

 doubtless that of Archbishop Whately, originally published with his 

 Rhetoric, in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. 



We proceed to give some farther ideas of Logic, under the heads 

 of Terms and Conception ; Propositions and Judgment ; Syllo- 

 gisms and Reasoning ; Fallacies or Sophisms ; Grounds of Judg- 

 ment ; and Uses of Reason. 



1. A Term, in Logic, is a word or phrase, serving to express a 



