Logic in Islamic philosophy
Early Islamic law placed importance on formulating standards of argument, which gave rise to a "novel approach to logic" in Kalam .
However, with the rise of the Mu'tazili philosophers, who highly valued Aristotle's Organon, this approach was displaced by the older ideas from Hellenistic philosophy.
The works of al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Ghazali and other Muslim logicians who often criticized and corrected Aristotelian logic and introduced their own forms of logic, also played a central role in the subsequent development of European logic during the Renaissance.
A drawing of Avicenna from 1271
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises due to the structure of arguments alone, independent of their topic and content. Informal logic is associated with informal fallacies, critical thinking, and argumentation theory. It examines arguments expressed in natural language while formal logic uses formal language. When used as a countable noun, the term "a logic" refers to a logical formal system that articulates a proof system. Logic plays a central role in many fields, such as philosophy, mathematics, computer science, and linguistics.
Young America's dilemma: Shall I be wise and great, or rich and powerful? (poster from 1901) This is an example of a false dilemma: an informal fallacy using a disjunctive premise that excludes viable alternatives.
Bertrand Russell made various contributions to mathematical logic.
Image: Aristotle Altemps Inv 8575
Image: Avicenne Avicenna Ibn Sina (980 1037) CIPB2067