2 The Self, Ideology, and Logic: F.C.S. Schiller’s Pragmatist Critique of and Alternative to Formal Logic

Abstract

This chapter underscores the historical contingency of the philosophy of logic. It examines Briton F.C.S. Schiller's philosophy of logic, in which, arguably, his greatest achievements lay. The chapter sets the stage for Schiller's philosophy of logic, for Schiller believed that logic was the only science that had remained impervious to the innovations wrought by the two revolutions. It argues that the conceptual resources provided by the two revolutions, and the modernist artistic imagination, allowed Schiller to challenge what he perceived as the orthodoxies of formal logic. The chapter seeks to unearth a specific historical mode of thinking about logic. In emphasizing the difference of Schiller's logic from the way one thinks about logic, it shows that Schiller's logic, though foreign from the perspective of today's philosophical culture, was meaningful and legitimate in its own historical setting. Keywords: F.C.S. Schiller; formal logic; historical contingency; philosophical culture