Reasoning

I was reading the Wikipedia page about Reasoning and the associated Discussion page (by the way, I find the discussion pages are often at least as interesting as the main articles, and sometimes more interesting), and it seems to me that we don’t have a good classification of the various types of reasoning. The page [...]

Logical Atoms

In predicate logic, the concept red ball is represented as a combination of the concepts of red and ball. We can define the predicate RedBall(x) as (Red(x) & Ball(x)). Logical atomism views the world in terms of compound predicates, such as RedBall(x), that are built up from atomic predicates, such as Red(x) and Ball(x). Good [...]

The Logic of Attributional and Relational Similarity

In a previous post, I discussed the distinction between attributes and relations:
An attribute is a characteristic of an entity, whereas a relation is a connection between two or more entities. In logic, we can define an attribute as a predicate with one argument and a relation as a predicate with two or more arguments. The [...]

Analogy and Logic

Aristotle’s theory of syllogism (in Prior Analytics) is often cited as the origin of modern logic. He also had a theory of analogy (in Poetics), which he put to practical use in reasoning about ethics (in Nichomachean Ethics). It seems that he believed logic and analogy were both valid forms of reasoning. The majority view [...]