An introductory text-book of logic - Mellone, Sydney - Rare Books at ...

2 THE GENERAL AIM OF LOGIC.
truths or facts," and would make Logic a name for all
the various sciences collectively, which is absurd. We
have said correct or valid thoughts ; for these terms,
especially the former, suggest reference to a type or
pattern, regarded as a rule or regulative principle to be
followed. Hence, far from giving us means by which
to discover new (particular) facts, the function of Logic
is entirely general. It shows that the thinking process
is essentially the same, whatever be the particulars
thought about. The process of calculation may be
explained in Arithmetic without regard to what the
numbers represent; and similarly thinking may be re
duced to general types which are the same in all par
ticular applications. It is the aim of Logic to discover
these types, and to show how to regulate thought by
them ; hence it deals with reasoning as a process
common to all the sciences, without regard to their
subject-matter. Only in this sense is Logic "the
Science of sciences"; and in this sense also, Logic
deals with
"
the 1
form and not the matter of thought."
3. The manner in which the subject has been
presented in the more elementary works hitherto,
the student will
depends partly on its history : and
find that a brief consideration of some of the chief
stages in that history will clear up his general idea of
the logical point of view.
The Greeks invented the very idea of Science, in that
sense of the word in which science is an Ideal, the
pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowing : and to
the Greeks also we owe the origin and development of
Logic. Aristotle considered that logical inquiries began
with the disputations of Zeno the Eleatic (towards the
1 The philosophical aspect of this definition will be considered in
our concluding chapter,
i.