Logic

Basic Presentation
 Brief History

• Logic as a discipline and an explicit analysis of

the methods of reasoning, was invented by
Aristotle (384-322BC).
• He codified the systematic laws of reasoning,
in his collection of works known, named later
the ‘Organon' or instrument.
• Logic is from logos, meaning ‘reason’.

The human mind sometimes makes a mistake

in disposition of the premises and hence arrives
at a wrong conclusion.

Logic is in charge of guiding him during the

process of inference.
Thus, logic is defined as:
:‫آلة قانونیة تعصم مراعاتها الذهنعن الخطأ فی الفکر‬
Logic is a legal instrument (organon)
utilizing which protects the mind from
incorrect thinking.”
• Logic was first translated into Arabic by
Honayn Ibn Ishaq (810-873AD).
• The most celebrated commentator of
Aristotelian logic was Avicenna (Ibn Sina 980-
1037AD); an Iranian Muslim philosopher. His
book is called ‘al-Shifa’.
• In the beginning of the 13 th Century the
treaties of Aristotle through the works of
Avicenna and Averroes (Ibn Roshd 1126-
1189AD) were translated into Latin and gave
an immense impetus to western philosophic
study.
• Thinking ' is defined ‘Disposition of the known
statements to gain the unknown one'.
• Premise', ‘Argument', ‘Conclusion':

• Every known statement which is used to gain

the unknown statement is called ‘premise' (al-
Moqadamah) and a connected series of
• statements to establish a definite proposition
is called ‘Argument' (al-Hojjah). The unknown
which is known through inference is called
‘Conclusion' (al-Natijah).
 Subject of Science

• The subject of every science is the ‘essential

properties' of that science. Human's unknown
information is either the ‘Conception', or
‘Argument' thus the subject of study in logic is
the ‘Definer' (al-Mo'arref), and the ‘Argument'
(al-Hojjah).
• Logic is said to be the most necessary human
knowledge.
• Al-Ghazzali; the Muslim theologian (1058-1111AD);
though he was an opponent to philosophy, considered
logic inevitable.
• Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Qayyem on the other hand
considered studying logic Haram.
• Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and Immanuel Kant
(1724-1804) were also the first opponents of
the Aristotelian logic in western philosophy.
Definition of “Knowledge” (‫ ) العلم‬:

)14 ‫ ص‬،‫ المنطق‬،‫حضور صورة الشیء عند العقل (المظفر‬

• “The presence of the image of a certain thing in
the mind.”
• “Knowledge” in logic is meant for “Acquired or
non-presential Knowledge” ‫حصولی‬
( ‫) العلم ال‬.
• In acquired knowledge the knower and the
known are different. The Knowledge bridges
them together. Such as our knowledge about
Mecca City.
 Presential Knowledge/knowledge by
presence ‫حضوری‬
( ‫) العلم ال‬

• Another type of knowledge is ‘knowledge by

presence' in which the actual known is
present to the knower; Such as knowledge
about our emotions. Logic does not deal with
knowledge by presence.
 Types of (Acquired) Knowledge

1. Concept(‫ ) التصور‬: concept is the simple image

of something in the mind without any
judgment about it.
2. Judgment (‫) التصدیق‬: Judgment is accepting or
rejecting the relation between two concepts.
Every judgment contains three conceptions:
a) the concept of the subject,
b) the concept of its attribute,
c) the concept of the relation between them
 Divisions of Words
• A word either has one or more than one meaning. A
word which has only one meaning is divided into two
types:

particular and universal

Particular = individual(‫ ) الجزئی‬:

Particular is a word which has only one example such

as: Aristotle, Sydney
2 . Universal ‫ی‬
( ‫ ) الکل‬:
Universal is a word which has more than one
example such as: human being, city.
• If a universal word applies the same to all its
examples is called ‘ univocal ' ( ‫ ) المتواطیء‬such
as ‘human being', and if it applies to its
examples in degrees,‫ک‬
( ‫ ) المش ِک‬such as “light”.
• A word which has more than one meaning is
divided into three types: 

1. Homonym(‫ ) المشترک اللفظی‬:

A word which has the same sound and often

the same spelling but different in meaning,
such as bank.
2 .Transferred(‫ ) المنقول‬:
A word which is initially made for one
meaning but is transferred to another one and
is no longer used in its first meaning without
any context. Such as ‘Salat' which originally
means supplication.
3. Metaphor (‫) المجاز‬:
A word or phrase that ordinarily designates
one thing is used to designate another, thus
making an implicit comparison, as in “a sea of
troubles”.
 Four Types of Comparisons

• There are always four types of comparisons

between two universal words or phrases:

1. Equality:(‫) التساوی‬

that means on any example one of them

applies, the other one also applies. Such as:
‘triangle' and ‘three sided polygon'.
2. Contrast:(‫) التباین‬
That means no example of any group matches
the other group. Such as human and stone.
3. Absolute Inclusive:
That only one of them applies to the other
one. Such as ‘ New South Wales ' and ‘ Australia.
• Relative Inclusive: That each one of them
partially applies to the other one. Such as
human being and black.
• Homonyms : are two words that sound alike
and can even be spelled the same but mean
different things such as: to & two & too, or
witch & which.
• Equivocal: open to two or more interpretation;
ambiguous; having more than one meaning:
such as bank and spring. Equivocal can be
classified as a branch of homonym. It is not
necessarily a word
 it can be an ambiguous phrase.
The translators have assumed that the Arabic
term ‘Moshakkak' has a literal meaning and
hence by mistake translated it to ‘equivocal'.
• Univocal means having only meaning.
 Conditions of Definition

1.   It should not be more general than the defined.

2.   It should not be less general than the defined.
3. It should not be contradictory to the defined.
4.   It should be more known than the defined.
5. The more general terms should be mentioned
before the less general ones.
6.   It must be free from all figurative or ambiguous
words.
• Argument or Reasoning is the most

complicated and perfected mental function.

Unlike a bare observation, it is a gradual

mental process and requires mental analysis.

 Types of Arguments

• Induction (‫) االستقراء‬

The process of deriving general principles

from particular facts or instances. e.g. All crows

are black.
Analogy (‫ ) التمثیل‬: A mode of inference in which we
reason from the resemblance of two things in some
respects to their resemblance in some more
respects.
Syllogism or Deduction (‫ ) القیاس‬: inference by
reasoning from the general to the specific.
‘ Sophistry ' or ‘ Fallacy ' (‫المغالطة‬ -‫) السفسطة‬

• If the purpose of the argument is to mislead

the audience by pretending to establish a

conclusion without really doing so, it is called ‘

Sophistry ' or ‘ Fallacy ' (‫المغالطة‬ -‫ ) السفسطة‬.

• The material used for fallacy is ‘Similarities'.
There are two types of fallacies:
a) the fallacy in diction (‫) لفظیة‬:
i.e. the one arising from the misuse of language.
B) the fallacy in meaning:
i.e. the one arising from the misuse of the
premises. There are many types of fallacies.
• The following are some examples:
 the Fallacy in Diction
1/ the fallacy of ambiguous middle (‫اشتراک الحد‬
‫) األوسط‬
2/ the fallacy of amphiboly (‫) اإلبهام‬
3/ the fallacy of accent, by stressing the wrong
part of a sentence (‫) التأکید‬
 the fallacy in meaning

1/ The fallacy of non-sequitur( ‫بالتبع‬ ‫) عدم اللزوم‬:

i.e. the one in which there is no logical connection

whatsoever between the premises and the conclusion.
For example to prove that a man is an adulterer by
arguing that he is a showy dresser and has often been
about at nights.
2/ The fallacy of affirmation of the consequent:
The fallacy of affirming of the consequent:

e.g. If he takes arsenic he will die. He had died.

Therefore, He must have taken arsenic!
3/ The fallacy of irrelevance:
It arises when by reasoning, which though
valid in itself, one establishes a conclusion
other than that required.
4/ The fallacy of many questions:
A deceptive form of interrogation in which a
single answer usually in the form of ‘Yes' or
‘No' is demanded to what is really not a single
question.
5/ The fallacy of Argumentum ad antiquitatem :
The fallacy of asserting something is right simply
because it's old.
6/ The fallacy of argument from ignorance:
That something must be true, simply because
it hasn't been proven false, or vise versa.
7/ The fallacy of Appeal to Pity:

e.g. I didn't kill my father. I'm suffering enough

through being an orphan.

8/ The fallacy of Argumentum ad Populum:

Millions of people in India are Hindus, so
Hinduism must be true.
9/ The fallacy of Appealing to the People:

“Burn him and help your gods” [21:68]

10/ The fallacy of Bifurcation:

also referred to as the ‘black and white' fallacy.

This occurs if someone presents a situation as
having only two alternatives,
where in fact other alternatives exist or can
exist.