Logic matters 2.5

Logic Matters
Notable Thinkers
Images and Quotations

Prof. Dave Marans, St. Thomas University, Miami, Florida

My off-campus address: davidjan43 the ‘at’ symbol aol one dot com

Gottlob Frege, Chrysippus, George Boole, Jonas Salk, Marcus Aurelius, William Hamilton,
Proclus Diadochus, Charlie Chan, Alfred North Whitehead, Aristotle, Alonzo Church, Averroes,
Berthand Russell, Oliver Heaviside, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Moses Maimonides, Henri Poincaré,
Thomas Aquinas, Francis Hutcheson, Andrew Carnegie, Roger Bacon, Michel de Montaigne,
Hans Reichenbach, Tim Williamson, Emanuel Kant, Isaac Watts, Franz Kafka, Francis Bacon,
Gregor Cantor, Pierre Boutroux, Blaize Pascal, Antoine Arnauld, John Locke, Saul Kripke,
Gottfried Leibniz, JohnVenn, William Gladstone, Claude Bernard, Augustas De Morgan,
Charles Dodgson, Ada Lovelace, John Stuart Mill, William of Ockham, Sherlock Holmes,
Hermann Weyl,
Alfred Tarski, John of Salisbury, Wilhelm Hegel, William Wills

In correct logic,
certain things are
supposed, and
something else
results of necessity.

Aristotle 4th Century BC

Greek
Beyond doubt, the most influential logician and encyclopedic mind, ever.
Aristotle’s Logic, the Organon, was unchallenged for over 2000 years:
Categories
On Interpretation
Prior Analytics
Posterior Analytics
Topics
On Sophistical Refutations
Even today Aristotle is widely considered the starting point in the study of Logic.
Treatises on physics, zoology, ethics, astronomy, psychology, metaphysics,,,,more.
Famed ruler and conqueror Aleaxander The Great was Aristotle’s student
Was at Plato’s Academy for 20 years, becoming Plato’s assumed successor.
But he left Athens when Plato chose Speusippus as the next head of the Academy.
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/professional-development/professional-networking/PRO_PNT/650090-8012904

To follow the scent of an animal,
the hunting dog uses this logic:

“The animal went either
by this road, or by that, or by the other:
but it did not go by this nor that,
thus it went the other way.”

Chrysippus 3rd Century BC

Greek
Head of the Stoic Academy in Athens.
Wrote over 700 works, none of which survived past 200 AD. Only fragments and secondary sources remain.
Work encompassed Logic, Nature, Theology, and much more.
Argued that logic pervades all of Nature.
His five postulates of logic:
1. If the first, then the second. The first. Therefore, the second. Modus Ponens
2. If the first, then the second. Not the second. Therefore, not the first. Modus Tolens
3. Not both the first and the second. The first. Therefore, not the second. Incompatible Argument
4. Either the first or the second. The first. Therefore, not the second. Strong Disjunctive Argument
5. Either the first or the second. Not the first. Therefore, the second. General Disjunctive Argument

His logic insights stayed virtually unknown for 2,000 years, then revived and highly prized since the year 1880.
In debate, would often be the only speaker and argue both sides of the question.
Said to have died in a fit of laughter after drinking wine and watching a donkey eating figs.
http://phoenicia.org/chrysippus.html

To fly from logic
is to be a true
fugitive.

Marcus Aurelius 2nd Century AD

Emperor of Rome
His Meditations espouses kindness, charity, virtue, and moderation.
His wife, however, was notoriously unfaithful and extravagant.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/aurelius.htm

This, therefore, is Logic:
She reminds you
of the invisible form
of the soul;
She gives light
to her own discoveries;
She awakens the mind
and purifies the intellect;
She brings light
to our intrinsic ideas;
She abolishes oblivion and
ignorance
which are ours by birth.
Proclus Diadochus 5th Century AD

Byzantium: Constantinople, Alexandria, Athens
Scholar, mathematician, commentator.
Preserved and transmitted texts from ancient Greece.
Commentary on Euclid
Astronomy
Book of Causes
Elements of Theology
Elements of Physics
Platonic Theology
Student, teacher, and then head of the Academy founded by Plato.
Composed hymns for the polytheistic religion of the time.
A life-long vegetarian, and extremely self-disciplined.
http://www.kheper.net/topics/Neoplatonism/Proclus.htm

There is no other way
to learn the truth
than through Logic.

Averroes 12 th Century

Cordoba and the Mediterranean
A prolific scholar.
Largely credited with transmitting the wisdom of ancient Greece to Western Europe.
Incoherence of the Incoherence – an important step in the revival of leaning.
Major commentaries on Aristotle’s Logic, Physics, Zoology,
Ethics, Astronomy, Pyschology, Meteorology, Intellect, and more.
A devout Islam theologian, dedicated to reconciling Faith and Reason
Also a judge and a physician for most of his life.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/arab-y67s11.html

Science can proceed only by
correct forms of logic.
So to not embrace logic
is to never find truth.
But by itself,
logic is practically useless.

John of Salisbury 12th Century

English, Anglo-Saxon
Philosopher, historian, churchman, diplomat, and scholar.
Defender of Thomas à Becket both before and after his murder.
Metalogicon
First complete presentation of Aristotle’s Organon in Western Europe.
An eloquent statement of Logic’s place in learning.
His large personal library provides an illuminating depiction of the medieval culture.
http://www.bartleby.com/211/1002.html

Consequently one who wishes
to attain to human perfection
must thus first study Logic.

Moses Maimonides 12th Century

Moorish Spanish and North African
Philosopher, Historian, Logician, Jewish Theologian, Physician, Rabbi
Guide to the Perplexed seeks to reconcile science, philosophy, and religion
and urges a rational approach to Judaism.
Lived mostly in Egypt and was physician/advisor to Moslem royal families.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/maimonides/

Logic draws a conclusion
and makes us grant the conclusion,
but does not make the conclusion certain,
except through experience.

Roger Bacon 13th Century

English
Franciscan friar and lecturer at Oxford and Paris.
Ostracized by university and church hierarchy.
Forced into life as an independent scholar.
Then given full permission to write and publish by Pope Clement IV.
Produced enormous volumes.
Comprehensive Logic
Comprehensive Reason and Dialogue
Major Work
Minor Work
Experimented in Optics and other sciences.
Stressed that all the sciences depend on mathematics.
Accused of and imprisoned for promoting demonic ideas.
Released only to die in obscurity.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/roger-bacon/

Logic is
the beginning of wisdom.

Thomas Aquinas 13th Century

Italian
Summa Theologica
Summa Contra Gentiles
Greatest Catholic Theologian, Canonized the “The Angelic Doctor”
His family was appalled at the prospect of his becoming a Dominican monk.
So they sent an impure woman to tempt him. She was unsuccessful, so we are told.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/

One who is learns the principles of logic
and then carefully studies other sciences,
will thereby develop
even greater in the art of logic.

William of Ockham 14th Century

English
A Franciscan Friar
Among the most highly regarded scholars of the late middle ages.
Best known for Ockham’s Razor: “For explanation, use no more hypotheses than necessary.”
Argues that Logical Forms are simply human abstraction and have no reality in themselves.
His theological views were considered heretical. Papal authority confined him in a monastary.
Spent much of his adult life in France and Germany, seeking freedom to think and write.
Often forced to live in hiding.
Was then excommunicated and forced to live in hiding.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007m0w4

Those who establish argument
by noise and command
show that their reason is weak.

Michel de Montaigne 16th Century

French
Statesman, advisor, and writer.
Essays: remarkable observations and comments on human nature still reads well today.
For example, “The best marriage is a blind woman and a deaf man.”
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/montaigne/

With logic, judgment,
and invention,
a person may do
great matters.

Francis Bacon 17th Century

English
Essayist, Jurist, Scientist, Statesman.
The New Science
Utopia
The Advancement of Learning
Bacon argues that empirical knowledge requires more logic than just Aristotle.
Died of pneumonia after trying to freeze a chicken.
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/bacon.html

Logic, being the rules for
all the operations of the mind,
exists for the very purpose of being
an instrument which is of service to us.

Antoine Arnauld 17th Century

French
Port-Royal Logic, The Art of Thinking (with Pierre Nicole)
The recognized model statement of Aristotle's logic for more than two centuries.
But accepted the new “scientific” materialism in opposition to both Aristotle and Aquinas.
Entire life embroiled the religious and social turmoil of the times.
Removed from the University of Paris because of his theology.
First condemned, then restored, re-condemned, and re-restored by successive Popes.
His works total 40 large volumes.
Was the youngest of twenty children
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/arnauld.html

The best defense
against logic
is ignorance.

Blaise Pascal 17th Century

French
Mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher.
Thoughts
On the Art of Persuasion
The Provincial Letters
Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle
On the Geometrical Mind
Devised an adding machine
Wore a death mask at his funeral.
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/pascal.html

Logic is
the anatomy of thought.

John Locke 17th Century

British
Philosopher, physician, and defender of free government.
Two Treatises of Government
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Performed life-saving liver surgery.
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/locke.html

This art of logic concerns
all kinds of reasoning
in which inferences
are executed by their form.
Gottfried Leibniz 17 th Century

German
Mathematician, rational philosopher, physicist, wide-ranging forerunner in science.
Discourse on Metaphysics,
A Philosopher's Creed
Explanation of Binary Arithmetic
Théodicy
Monadology
Invented the infinitesimal calculus and binary numbers.
Designed one of the earliest calculators.
http://www.leibnizreview.com/

Logic is the art
which directs the mind
in its acquisition of knowledge.

Francis Hutcheson 18 th Century

Scotch-Irish
Author of Logic, Metaphysics, and the Natural Sociability of Mankind
A significant figure in the Period Of Enlightenment .
Proponent of liberty and freedom of ideas.
Highly influential mentor of the great economist Adam Smith.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scottish-18th/

Logic helps us to strip off
the outward disguise of things,
and to behold and judge them
in their own nature.

Isaac Watts 18th Century

British
Logic, or, The Right Use of Reason in the Inquiry After Truth.
The standard textbook in much the English-speaking world for 100 years
Best known then and now for prodigious and marvelous hymns, one of which concludes:
Where reason fails,
With all her powers,
There faith prevails
And love adores.
http://www.victorshepherd.on.ca/Sermons/isaac.htm

Logic is the science
of the necessary laws
of the form of thinking.
-------
We cannot think
or use our understanding
except by logical principles.
Immanuel Kant 18th Century

German.
Arguably the greatest philosopher since Aristotle. But even Kant held fast to Aristotle’s Logic:
“Logic has not gained much since Aristotle’s time, indeed it cannot.
Logic is in a permanent state from which it cannot undergo any change.”
Logic
Critique of Pure Reason
Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Critique of Practical Reason
Critique of Judgement
On Pedagogy
Lived his entire life in Konigsberg.
Famous for self-discipline and extreme punctuality.
http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/Kant.html

By studying logic,
your mind acquires
self-reliance and independence.
You become at home in abstractions
and you can progress
using ideas that are free from
the coming and going
of the moment.

You develop an unsuspected power
of assimilating in rational form
all the complex branches of
knowledge.
By studying logic
you begin to grasp and retain
the essential character
of all the sciences, stripping them
of their external features
and in this way
extracting the logical element Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel 19th Century
they hold in common.
German
A prominent figure in the history of philosophy.
Eminent Professor at Jena, Heidelberg, and Berlin.
Science of Logic
Phenomenology of Spirit
Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences
Elements of the Philosophy of Right
Writing are highly complex, difficult, and rather murky.
Denied that a logical form has no content in itself.
Argued instead that logical form is its own content (“being” and “becoming”) so central to the metaphysics of Reality.
As for politics, supported peaceful progress toward freedom and equality.
Witnessed and was impressed by Napoleon's triumphal march though Jena.
Died in the cholera epidemic of the 1830's.
Hegel’s last words: “They didn’t understand me.”

http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/hegel/section4.rhtml
http://www.gwfhegel.org/

The heated mind resents
the chill touch
and relentless scrutiny
of logic.

William Gladstone 19th Century

British Liberal Party statesman and four times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRdisraeli.htm

The question of logic is:
Does the conclusion
certainly follow if the
premises be true?
Augustus De Morgan 19 th Century

British (born in India)
Professor of Mathematics and Logic (and occasional) Lawyer.
Anticipated and provided impetus for subsequent developments in logic and mathematics.
First Notions of Logic
Formal Logic or The Calculus of Inference
Syllabus of a Proposed System of Logic
An Essay on Probabilities
The Elements of Arithmetic
He never felt comfortable anywhere outside of London.
http://www.nndb.com/people/437/000097146/

“Contrariwise,”continued
Tweedledee, “if it was so, it might be;
and if it were so, it would be:
but as it isn’t it ain’t. That’s logic.”

Charles Dodgson 19 th Century

British
Mathematics Lecturer at Christ Church college, Oxford.
Wrote advanced logic texts and books of logic puzzles.
Best known then and now as Lewis Carroll.
Author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
Excellent at charades and an accomplished photographer.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lcarroll.htm

Logic is the
necessary conditions
of thought itself.

William Hamilton 19th Century

Scotch
Scientist, logician, historian, philosopher.
Formulated ground-breaking ideas concerning Logical Form.
Championed the use of psychology in education.
Discussions on Philosophy and Literature, Education and University Reform
Notes and Dissertations.
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic
His salary, as professor at Edinburgh University, came from a local tax on beer.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scottish-19th/#SirWilHam178185

In every enterprise
logic directs the mind.
Only we are not aware of it.

Claude Bernard 19th Century

French
Physiologist and historian of science.
An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine
Formulated the method of a “Blind Experiment”.
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n06/historia/bernard_i.htm

Nothing in modern education
tends so much to form exact thinkers
as logic.

John Stuart Mill 19th Century

British
Home schooled and never attended college (except an aborted attempt at Law).
Yet a philosopher of unmatched overall impact in the last 200 years.
System of Logic
A persuasive (though flawed) rejection of Aristotelian logic.
Insists on a new Logic of uncertainty and verification.
Lays out Logical Methods for advancing knowledge.
Principles of Political Economy
On Liberty—Individual freedom, democratic but limited government.
Utilitarianism— Ethics based on consequences and happiness.
Argued, wrote and worked for equality: economic, racial, sexual, religious–the lot.
As a respected Member of Parliament proposed Proportional Representation and Universal Suffrage.
Godfather to Bertrand Russell.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill/

Logic has its own
peculiar truth and value.

Augusta Ada King 19th Century

British
Countess of Lovelace
Exceptional mathematician and world’s first computer programer.
Collaborated with Charles Babbage who designed the first computer.
Daughter of poet Lord Byron.
http://www.well.com/~adatoole/bio.htm

John Venn
19th Century

Logic is not concerned with what we do believe,
but what we ought to believe, if we are to believe correctly.

British
Mathematician, ordained Deacon, Logician, Lecturer in Moral Science.
The Logic of Chance
Symbolic Logic
The Principles of Empirical Logic
Best remember for Venn Diagrams used ever since in logic, mathematics and computer science.
For 70 years, graduate and then Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Compiled a 500 year Biographical History of the college, requiring vast research and listing over
130,000 students!
In Venn’s honor and memory there is a unique stained glass at the college chapel.
A skilled mountain climber and a keen botanist.
Built a cricket machine capable of a clean bowl against top strikers.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/John_Venn

The rules of logic hold
good of any symbols,
written, spoken, or thought.
__________

I define logic therefore
as the science of the conditions
which enable symbols in general
to refer to objects.
Charles Sanders Peirce 19 th Century

American
Perhaps the greatest intellect in the United States of America, ever.
What Is Logic? Harvard Logic Lecture #1. Little known but remarkably important and original:
http://www.cspeirce.com/menu/library/bycsp/earlymss/ms94harvard1.pdf
Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed For Man
Some Consequences of Four Incapacities
The Fixation of Belief
How to Make Our Ideas Clear
Philosopher, logician, mathematician, scentist (in several 10 areas) inventor; psychologist,
historian, economist, critic, playwright, stage performer, fiction author.
Fundamentally opposed to the psychologization of logic so prevalent in his time, and still today.
Largely unrecognized in his lifetime, except by a few notable figures.
Publish several important papers in newsstand magazines
Only really steady job was with the government's Coast and Geodetic Survey
Was excluded from academe because he lived with a woman out of wedlock.
Died destitute and (were it not for his wife) nearly alone.
http://www.peirce.org/

And these symbols of Logic
are in their use
subject to definite laws.

George Boole 19th Century

British
Had minimal formal education, so studied and worked privately.
At age 34, appointed lecturer, Queen’s College, Cork, Ireland.
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought
Mathematical Analysis of Logic
Developed Logico-Mathematics based on a yes/no, on/off, zero/one model– “Boolean Algebra”.
This evolved into and continues as the underlying architecture of all digital science and technology.
His contemporary, Augustus De Morgan wrote (prophetically):
“Boole's system of logic
is but one of many proofs of genius and patience combined
that the symbolic processes of algebra,
invented as tools of numerical calculation,
should be competent to express every act of thought,
and to furnish the grammar and dictionary
of an all-containing system of logic.”
Sadly, at age 49 Boole died of pneumonia after a long walk to class through the rain and then lecturing in wet clothes.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15114

Carefully study
the Art of Reasoning.
It is what most people
are deficient in.
William John Wills 19th Century

British-Australian
Scientist, explorer, and physician.
Died at age 27 on expedition to cross Australia from south to north.
http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/burke.html

We are not sure
of the logical soundness
of our methods and results
until we make everything about them
quite definite.

Gregor Cantor 19th Century

German (born in Russia)
Professor at University of Halle, Wittenberg
Regarded as one of the greatest of all mathematicians.
Almost singlehandedly created set theory and transfinite mathematics.
Argued that for every infinite set, there a larger infinite set, and thus infinitely many infinite sets!
Foundations of a General Theory of Aggregates
Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers
Believed his theory of transfinite numbers had been communicated to him by God.
Published papers attempting to show that Francis Bacon wrote all of "Shakespeare’s" works.
Argued that transfinite numbers and multiple infinities disprove fatalism and materialism.
Beset by academic, theological, and social criticism, Cantor even wrote letters to Pope Leo XIII.
“Transfinite numbers are at the disposal of the intentions of the Creator and His absolute boundless will.”
http://www.iep.utm.edu/par-log/

Crime is common. Logic is rare.
Therefore it is upon the logic
rather than upon the crime
that you should dwell.

Sherlock Holmes 19th Century

Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective, famous for his power logical deduction.
http://sites.google.com/site/martinhickes/home

What really pertains to logic
lies not in truth
but in the asserting force by which
truth is spoken.

Gottlob Frege 19th Century

German
Scholar of profound insight who virtually redefined logic
Concept Script
On Sense and Reference
Foundations of Arithmetic
Though modest and reserved, Frege was politically conservative, even xenophobic.
He left numerous private and unpublished papers, many of which were destroyed in the
carnage of the Second World War, 20 years after Frege’s death.
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~brianwc/frege/

Logic can be
patient,
for it is eternal.

Oliver Heaviside 19th Century

British
Physicist and mathematician
Electromagnetic Theory.
First to theorize the import of the earth’s ionosphere layer.
Large craters on both the moon and Mars are named for him.
Earned no university degree. Studied and published as a private citizen.
Heaviside played the Aeolian harp and the ocarina.
http://www.oliverheaviside.com/

Logic teaches us
that on such and such a road
we are sure
of not meeting an obstacle;
it does not tell us which is the road
that leads to the desired end.

Henri Poicaré 19th Century

French
Multifaceted mathematician and scientist
Had absolute photographic memory his entire life.
Was a mine inspector from age 22 until his death.
University of Paris, primary lecturer in mathematics and science from age 27.
Could work out complete solutions without paper.
Ground breaking discoveries in topology, algebra, celestial mechanics, relativity, and Chaos Theory.
On the Foundations of Geometry
Intuition and Logic in Mathematics
Mathematics and Logic
Science and Hypothesis
The Value of Science
Science and Method
Stressed that mathematics in not simply an extension of logic.
His brother, Raymond, was President of France during the Great War.
Contributed much toward the acquittal in the Dreyfus affair.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Poincare.html

Logic is invincible because
in order to combat logic
it is necessary to use logic.

Pierre Léon Boutroux 20 th Century

French
Highly respected mathematician and historian.
The Principles of Mathematical Analysis
Ideas of Science and Mathematics from Ancient to Modern Times
Also a spiritual philosopher insisting on freedom and spontaneity of the spirit.
Argued that of modern science requires indeterminancy.
Both the form and the content of the above quote echos Aristotle’s own:
“If we ought to philosophize, then we ought to philosophize.
And if we ought not to philosophize, then we ought to philosophize. [to prove that we ought not]
Thus, we ought to philosophize.”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9800EFDF1F39E633A25757C2A9639C946596D6CF

Logic is the hygiene
that keeps ideas
healthy and strong.

Hermann Weyl 20 th Century

German
A major figure in contemporary mathematics and physics.
The Continuum : A Critical Examination of the Foundation of Analysis.
Group Theoretic Method in Quantum Physics.
Space, Time, and Matter
On generalized Riemann Matrices
Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science
Repulsed by the rise of Nazism, in 1933 Weyl and his Jewish wife went to the United States
and Princeton University, staying until several years after the war. There he collaborated
with the likes of Albert Einstein.
http://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/bstud/weyl.html

Logic is doubtless unshakable,
but it cannot withstand
those who want to go on living.

Franz Kafka 20th Century

Czechoslovakian
Arguably the quintessential author of the 20th century.
Profoundly depicts life's terror since the automobile, radio, dynamite, and photography.
The Trial
Metamorphosis
The Castle
Amerika
The Penal Colony
Suffered Tuberculosis and Migraines; and died at age forty from starvation in a sanatarium.
Wanted all his work (mostly unpublished) destroyed, but his best friend preserved it.
http://www.levity.com/corduroy/kafka.htm

Principia
Mathematica
Hailed as the most significant
work in Logic since Aristotle

20th Century

Bertrand Russell Alfred North Whitehead

Knowledge of logical forms Without deductive logic
is something quite different from science would be
knowledge of existing things. entirely useless.

British
British
Professor:
Began as Whitehead’s student
Trinity College, Cambridge,
Logician, philosopher, mathematician
Imperial College, London,
Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy
Harvard University, Boston
On Denoting
Science and the Modern World
The Analysis of Mind
The Concept of Nature
The Problems of Philosophy
Precess and Reality
A History of Western Philosophy
The Aims of Education
An Outline of Philosophy
Adventures in Ideas
Life-long peace activist.
Hosted open-house every weekend.
Imprisoned for WWI pacifism
Ordered all his papers destroyed at death.
Free-Love advocate
There was no funeral.
One day when out peddling his bicycle,
Russell realized he no longer loved his wife.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/principia-mathematica/

When dealing with people,
remember
you are not dealing with
creatures of logic,
but creatures of emotion.
Dale Carnegie 20th Century

American
High priest of Self-improvement.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dynamic lecturer
A large and loyal public following
Born in poverty, worked as a traveling salesman, and began speaking at local YMCA’s.
http://www.westegg.com/unmaintained/carnegie/carnegie.html

Logic is prior
to all truth and falsehood.

Ludwig Wittgenstein 20th Century

Austrian
Philosopher. Considered a seminal philosophical genius of the 20th century.
Studied with Bertrand Russell.
Few publications, but highly influential
Tractatus
Philosophical Investigations
Served loyally in the army of Austria (against Britain) throughout the Great War.
Ten years later, he returned to Britain permanently.
Wittgenstein loved American B-grade Western movies.
http://www.editor.net/BWS/wittgenstein.html

Whoever has experienced
in his own mind
the great clarification process
which logical analysis
accomplishes,
will know what logic can achieve.

Hans Reichenbach 20th Century

German
Naturalized American citizen late in life.
Prodigious output in Logic, Mathematics, Physics, and History of Science.
Elements of Symbolic Logic
The Rise of Scientific Philosophy
From Copernicus to Einstein
Philosophic Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
A loyal German soldier in The Great War.
Having Jewish grandparents, was dismissed from Professorship at University of Berlin in 1933.
Being vocally anti-Nazi, moved to Turkey and then to the USA.
Distinguished professor at UCLA
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/reichenbach/

Logic is concerned with the analysis
of sentences and proofs,
with attention to form
in abstraction from matter.
------------
If error is corrected
whenever it is recognized as such,
the path of error is the path of truth.

Alonzo Church

American
Mathematician and Logician
Credited for much of the original theoretical bases of computer science.
Regarded by many as the greatest America-born logician-mathematician.
Proved there's no possible algorithm for determining whether an arbitrary argument is logically
valid.
The Calculi of Lambda-Conversion
A Note on the Decision-Problem
An Unsolvable Problem in Elementary Number Theory
On the Concept of a Random Sequence
Introduction to Mathematical Logic
Princeton University: from freshman (1920) to professor until 1967. then at UCLA until 1990.
Church looked like a “cross between a panda and a large owl.”
Enjoyed and collected science-fiction novels
Before beginning lecture Church methodically erased the blackboard spotlessly in even rows.
Church even had a logical way of eating breakfast:
First pour the milk into the empty bowl. Next pour in the proper amount of sugar. Stir the
mixture with the breakfast spoon. Then pour in a spoonful or two of cereal. Eat that.
Then pour in another spoonful or two, eat that, and so on. The sugar is dissolved and
evenly distributed, and the cereal never has a chance to get soggy.
http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Church.html

Conclusion
often like toy balloon.
easy blow-up,
easy pop.

Charlie Chan 20 th century

Fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1923.
Portrayed in a series on movies between 1935 and 1948. (actor Warner Oland above).
http://www.charliechan.net/mainmenu.html

The blindness of past logicians
was the widespread lack
of the required epistemological
attitude.
-----------
Objective concepts of mathematics
are fundamental to my work in logic.

Kurt Godel 20 th Century

With Albert Einstein

German
At the start of the Second World War, fled from Germany to America.
Considered the most brilliant logician of the 20 th century, if not ever.
On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems......
The Completeness of the Axioms of the Functional Calculus of Logic
Some Metamathematical Results on Completeness and Consistency
On Completeness and Consistency
Astoundingly demonstrated that simple arithmetic contains true statements that can never be proved!
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~jrlucas/simplex.html
Was a convinced theist and rejected his friend Albert Einstein’s view that God was impersonal.
Believed firmly in immortality, stating: "If the world is rationally constructed, there must be an afterlife."
At his swearing-in for American citizenship, he told the judge that there is a logical inconsistency in the
Constitution that would allow for a dictatorship. But as Gödel’s best friend Albert Einstein standing
next to him, the judge hastily silenced Gödel and granted citizenship!
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/goedel/

Logic analyzes the meaning
of concepts common to all science
and establishes the general laws
governing those concepts.

Alfred Tarski 20th Century

Polish-American
Leading figure in advancing Logic far, far, far beyond Aristotle.
On the Concept of Logical Consequence
Introduction to Logic and to the Methodology of Deductive Sciences
On the calculus of Relations
The Semantical Concept of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics
For a symposium in Boston, he was on the last ship from Poland to the USA before WWII.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/tarski/

Medical Science taught
that toxoid immunization
is impossible.
I didn't doubt it.
I just questioned
the logic of it.
Jonas Salk 20th Century

American
Research physician who developed the first safe and effective Polio Vaccine.
Used a Waring Blender with an Aseptic Dispersal Container attachment to develop the vaccine.
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/sal0bio-1

Teenage Sensation Senior Icon

Saul Kripke 20th Century

Any necessary truth, whether logical or empirical,
could not have turned out otherwise.
American
A most remarkable genius in Logical analysis.
Highly eccentric and quite baffling to all but a few.
Naming and Necessity
Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language.
Many, many important papers still unpublished.
When his first essay arrived at Harvard,
the philosophy department was so stunned it invited him to join the faculty.
But Saul wrote back that his mother wanted him to first finish high school.
While a sophomore at Harvard, was named University Fellow for high level math and logic.
Graduated B.A. Summa Cum Laude
Yet that was Kripke’s ONLY earned degree, even though he has been handed many honorary
degrees, international awards, and distinguished Professorships at leading universities.
There is even a SAUL KRIPKE CENTER in Manhattan the mission of which is:
“To promote the study of the intellectual achievements of Saul Kripke.”
At age 65 Kripke remarked, "I wish I could have skipped college...I got to know some
interesting people, but I can't say I learned anything. I probably would have learned it all
anyway, just reading on my own."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/28/books/28krip.html?_r=1

Logic resembles good
poetry: precise, radical,
imaginative, elegant,
powerful, orderly, subtle,
reflective, and accurate.

Tim Williamson 21 st Century

British, born in Sweden
The Philosophy of Philosophy
Knowledge and Its Limits
Vagueness
Identity and Discrimination
In his own words: "My central theme in the gap between what is true and what can be known."
Williamson’s advice to everyone: “To be precise is to make it as easy as possible for others to
prove one wrong. That is what requires courage.”
For fiction, Williamson likes Jane Austen, Dashiell Hammett and authors “who are as clever
and clear-eyed as good philosophers, and as exact in their use of words, but who don’t
attempt to do philosophy.”
http://sciencestage.com/v/6808/timothy-williamson-on-truth-and-certainty.html

Logic matters 2.5

More Related Content

What's hot

Viewers also liked

Similar to Logic matters 2.5

Recently uploaded

Logic matters 2.5