Formal Logic

Major mid-twentieth-century analytic-logical textbook.

"The proper analytic-philosophical work depends on careful logical training; Formal Logic provides that training with historical-philosophical depth." (Prior, preface)

Mainstream presentation of modern mathematical-logical apparatus — propositional logic, predicate logic, modal logic.

"Modern mathematical logic — Frege, Russell, Whitehead, Łukasiewicz — is the proper foundation for any serious philosophical work." (Formal Logic)

Strong historicist sensibility — modern formal logic placed in historical conversation with Aristotelian, Stoic, scholastic, and early-modern traditions.

"Modern formal logic is not foreign to the older logical traditions; it is their proper continuation when their insights are properly recognised." (Formal Logic)

Strong recovery of Aristotelian logic within the modern formal framework.

"What Aristotle's syllogistic shows about logical inference is properly incorporated within the modern logical framework; the modern framework does not replace the ancient." (Formal Logic)

Recovery of Stoic propositional logic within the modern formal framework — Prior's historical-philosophical attention to Stoic logic was unusual.

"The Stoic logicians anticipated the propositional logic of the moderns by two thousand years; Łukasiewicz and others have shown this." (Formal Logic)

Recovery of medieval-scholastic logic within the modern formal framework.

"The medieval logicians — Ockham, Buridan, Albert of Saxony — developed propositional and modal logical insights the modern tradition is only now properly recovering." (Formal Logic)