<span>Does syllogistic logic have the resources to capture mathematical proof? This volume provides the first unified account of the history of attempts to answer this question, the reasoning behind the different positions taken, and their far-reaching implications. Aristotle had claimed that scient
Syllogistic Logic and Mathematical Proof
✍ Scribed by Paolo Mancosu, Massimo Mugnai
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Year
- 2023
- Tongue
- English
- Leaves
- 238
- Category
- Library
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Does syllogistic logic have the resources to capture mathematical proof? This volume provides the first unified account of the history of attempts to answer this question, the reasoning behind the different positions taken, and their far-reaching implications. Aristotle had claimed that scientific knowledge, which includes mathematics, is provided by syllogisms of a special sort: 'scientific' ('demonstrative') syllogisms. In ancient Greece and in the Middle Ages, the claim that Euclid's theorems could be recast syllogistically was accepted without further scrutiny. Nevertheless, as early as Galen, the importance of relational reasoning for mathematics had already been recognized. Further critical voices emerged in the Renaissance and the question of whether mathematical proofs could be recast syllogistically attracted more sustained attention over the following three centuries. Supported by more detailed analyses of Euclidean theorems, this led to attempts to extend logical
theory to include relational reasoning, and to arguments purporting to reduce relational reasoning to a syllogistic form. Philosophical proposals to the effect that mathematical reasoning is heterogenous with respect to logical proofs were famously defended by Kant, and the implications of the debate about the adequacy of syllogistic logic for mathematics are at the very core of Kant's account of synthetic a priori judgments. While it is now widely accepted that syllogistic logic is not sufficient to account for the logic of mathematical proof, the history and the analysis of this debate, running from Aristotle to de Morgan and beyond, is a fascinating and crucial insight into the relationship between philosophy and mathematics.
✦ Table of Contents
Cover
Syllogistic Logic and Mathematical Proof
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Introduction
1. Aristotelian Syllogism and Mathematics in Antiquity and the Medieval Period
2. Extensions of the Syllogism in Medieval Logic
2.1 Oblique Terms and Relational Sentences in Late Medieval Logic: John Buridan, William of Ockham, and Albert of Saxony
2.2 Expository Syllogism: Identity and Singular Terms
3. Syllogistic and Mathematics: The Case of Piccolomini
3.1 Piccolomini’s Syllogistic Reconstruction of Euclid’s Elements I.1
First Syllogism
Second Syllogism
Third Syllogism
Fourth Syllogism
3.2 A Critical Analysis of Piccolomini’s Reconstruction
Second Syllogism
Third Syllogism
Third Syllogism
4. Obliquities and Mathematics in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: From Jungius to Saccheri
4.1 Johannes Vagetius (1633–1691)
4.2 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1714)
4.3 Juan Caramuel Lobkowitz (1606–1682)
4.4 Gerolamo Saccheri (1667–1733)
4.5 A First Conclusion
5. The Extent of Syllogistic Reasoning: From Rüdiger to Wolff
5.1 Andreas Rüdiger (1673–1731) and His School on Oblique Inferences
5.2 Christian Wolff on Oblique Inferences
5.3 Mathematics, Philosophy, and Syllogistic Inferences in Wolff, Rüdiger, Müller, Hoffmann, and Crusius
5.3.1 Wolff: Every Mathematical Demonstration Is a Chain of Syllogisms
5.3.2 Rüdiger and His School on the Non-Syllogistic Nature of Mathematics
5.3.2.1 Andreas Rüdiger on the Non-Syllogistic Nature of Mathematics
5.3.2.2 Syllogism and Mathematical Reasoning in Müller, Hoffmann, and Crusius
5.3.2.3 Appendix: Note (d) in Rüdiger’s De Sensu Veri et Falsi (1722)
6. Lambert and Kant
6.1 Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728–1777) and the Treatment of Relations in His Logical Calculus
6.2 Kant and Traditional Logic
6.3 Kant on Syllogistic Proofs and Mathematics
7. Bernard Bolzano on Non-Syllogistic Reasoning
8. Thomas Reid, William Hamilton, and Augustus De Morgan
Conclusion
References
Index of Names
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