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Before Logic
Contributor(s): Mason, Richard (Author)
ISBN: 0791445313     ISBN-13: 9780791445310
Publisher: State University of New York Press
OUR PRICE:   $90.25  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: March 2000
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Annotation: Must logic come first? Are philosophical problems really logical? Must we think logically to think at all? Richard Mason's case is that too much comes before logic -- too many choices and too much history. Logic has been formed by choices made by philosophers, not just as a subject of study, but in terms of what has mattered: the problems, and the possible solutions. Before Logic contains case studies of crucial choices: on the formation of logical possibility, on truth, on the explanation of necessity, on essentialism, and on the location of logic. For readers with interests in analytical or continental philosophy or in logic, this book shows why and how history matters to logic. Logic then, cannot be the basis for metaphysics -- or an important grounding for philosophical investigations -- because too many important assumptions precede it. The difficulty this position presents is that it avoids the obvious objections of relativism. This controversial topic strikes at the heart of much post-Wittgensteinian and post-Heideggerian thought.
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Philosophy | Logic
- Philosophy | History & Surveys - General
Dewey: 160
LCCN: 99059365
Series: Suny Philosophy
Physical Information: 161 pages
 
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Publisher Description:
Must logic come first? Are philosophical problems really logical? Must we think logically to think at all? Richard Mason's case is that too much comes before logic--too many choices and too much history. Logic has been formed by choices made by philosophers, not just as a subject of study, but in terms of what has mattered: the problems, and the possible solutions. Before Logic contains case studies of crucial choices: on the formation of logical possibility, on truth, on the explanation of necessity, on essentialism, and on the location of logic. For readers with interests in analytical or continental philosophy or in logic, this book shows why and how history matters to logic. Logic then, cannot be the basis for metaphysics--or an important grounding for philosophical investigations--because too many important assumptions precede it. The difficulty this position presents is that it avoids the obvious objections of relativism. This controversial topic strikes at the heart of much post-Wittgensteinian and post-Heideggerian thought.