Topics Logic

Question I have an old copy of whateleys logic (1840s) is it still worth reading?

Accepted:
November 7, 2008

Comments

Well, it all depends on what you're hoping to get out of it. If your interest is in the history of philosophy, and you want to find out about the state of logic and philosophy in nineteenth-century Britain, then sure, go ahead and read it. (Although, given a choice, I'd actually recommend John Stuart Mill's System of Logic over Whateley).

But if your interest is in logic as such, and you're hoping that this book will give you a decent introduction to the subject and a general overview of the state of play, then no, it really, really won't do that. Logic didn't actually change a whole lot from Aristotle's time right up until that of Whateley and Mill: but then, just a few decades later, it suddenly underwent a radical transformation. The work of Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell and others, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, completely revolutionised the subject, and works written before their time are nowadays of interest only to historians. That's not to say that I'd necessarily recommend that you should read Frege or Russell's own works either: a few of them do still remain important and relatively accessible, but most of them are pretty impenetrable to a beginner. If it's an introduction to logic that you're after, your starting point should be a recent, beginner's-level textbook. There are plenty to choose from.

Question I have an old copy of whateleys logic (1840s) is it still worth reading? Accepted:November 7, 2008

Question I have an old copy of whateleys logic (1840s) is it still worth reading?

Accepted:
November 7, 2008