A Short History Of Logic - Hardcover

A SHORT HISTORY OF LOGIC by EGBERT ADAMSON. Originally published in 1911. PREFACE: THE article on Logic which Professor Adamson con tributed to the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica consists of a critical survey of the his tory of logical theory its value is well known to philosophical students and no apology is needed to justify its publication in separate form. It may be mentioned, however, that this publication was thought to be important at the present time, as the work was in danger of becoming less easily accessible owing to the issue of the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia, in which it is not reprinted. The manuscript of the article has been fortunately preserved alone among the manuscripts of the authors published writings. It is much fuller than the printed article, a number of passages some fifty in all having been struck out by the editor with a view to economy of space. These passages affect both text and notes they vary in length from a few words to whole sections they vary also in importance but the authors own opinion was that the value of his . 6 iG. xSb vi PKEFACE work had suffered by their omission and with this opinion I agree. In the present book these passages have been restored to their place, so that the article as it left the authors hands is now, for the first time, placed before the reader. The manuscript bears no trace of the editorial blue pencil, and the original proof no longer exists so that a doubt may arise as to whether any particular omission may not have been made by the author himself when he corrected the proofs. But it is clear, from a comparison of manuscript and print, that his proof-corrections were few and unimportant. No real difficulty, therefore, has arisen in deciding upon the restorations. The authors style was so concise that greater brevity could not be attained without sacrifice of the matter. It should be borne in mind that the article on Logic was written and published in 1882. The supplementary articles, by which it is followed in this volume, are all contributions to the history of logic but the first of these that on Category, also reprinted from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, dates from six years earlier and only the last carries the story on towards a more recent development of logical theory. Eeaders of the authors works do not need to be reminded that his own point of view underwent modification, and that there are some things here which he might have expressed differently had he revised the work himself. With the authors manuscript and printed copy before me, my own work as editor has consisted chiefly in selecting the material and seeing it through the press. Some omitted references have been sup plied a few slips of the pen or the press, formerly overlooked, have been corrected unwieldy paragraphs have been broken up, and the punctuation has been simplified but nothing new has been added to text or notes. I am responsible for the choice of a title. It remains for me to express my grateful thanks to the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press for allowing the publication of the articles on Logic and on Category in the present form. For permission to reprint the critical notices from Mind, with which the volume ends, I am indebted to the kindness of Professor Davidson of Aberdeen, literary executor of the late Professor Bain. W. E. SOELEY. KINGS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, October 1911.