Logical Discourse Research Articles

Neuro-Ophthalmology: A Problem-Oriented Approach

Many clinicians find neuro-ophthalmology overwhelming, requiring infrequently used, but time-consuming, skills to distinguish mysterious disorders. Drs Beck and Smith have captured the essence of this subject in a gem of a book that can be used both as a quick reference and as a programmed text. beauty of this book is its simplicity. The book begins with a brief review of the neuro-ophthalmic examination and the interpretation of visual fields. It then proceeds through a fairly orderly synopsis of the major neuroophthalmic problems, beginning with the afferent visual system and ending with motor processes. Each subject is covered in two to four pages, beginning with a brief case report. This is followed by a logical discourse on the differential diagnosis, leading to a review of the correct diagnosis. The emphasis is on diagnosis by signs and symptoms, without reliance on laboratory or radiologic tests. The general guidelines for management

Presuppositions for Logic

Positivists identify science and certainty and in the name of the utter rationality of science deny that it rests on speculative presuppositions. The Logical Positivists took a step further and tried to show such presuppositions really no presuppositions at all but rather poorly worded sentences. Rules of sentence formation, however, rest on the presuppositions about the nature of language. This makes us unable to determine the status of mathematics, which is these days particularly irksome since this question is now—since Abraham Robinson—one that mathematicians cannot ignore. Since mathematics is the paradigm of a logical discourse, logic must offer a system adequate enough to serve mathematics. This fact makes it difficult to avoid making question-begging moves in both mathematics and logic. We must therefore view the rationality of logic as partial and hope it is stepwise improvable. The theory of rationality thus turns to be the major presupposition of logic, and one which has ample metaphysical background to it. The very supposition, basic to all logic, that language is divisible into form and content is under suspicion—mathematics perhaps belongs to neither.

Contemporary Capitalism and the Critique of Political Economy: Methodological Aspects

Recent changes in capitalism, especially the increasing role of the state, have brought up the question of the relationship of these changes to the general theory of capitalism. This also applies to a theory such as Marx's critique of political economy. The critique of political economy can be viewed as a theory which exposes the basic nature of the capitalist mode of production: it is the theory of a specific - the capitalist - social formation. The specificity of capitalism finds explanation in its predominant value and capital relations. Now, in the presentation of the critique of political economy, in Marx Capital , one should place emphasis on certain metho dological solutions. In the first place, the presentation proceeds from the most abstract concepts to the most concrete, a movement which consti tutes the crux of Marx's dialectic method. Secondly, we can distinguish between different levels in the presentation: the internal laws of capitalism and their mode of realization. This means that Marx not only revealed the laws of capitalism but also indicated how they find expression. In addition, it should be pointed out that Capital is not merely an abstract-logical discourse, rather we must also take into account, on the one hand, the relationship of the logical to the historical in Capital, and the laws of development which demonstrate the contradictory development of capi talism on the other. Monopoly theory has dealt with the question of how free competition was transformed into monopoly capitalism. This transformation is locat ed on the level of the realization of the laws of capitalism, since the laws themselves (the internal nature of capitalism) do not change. In explain ing the genesis of the monopoly it is necessary to analyze the exacerba tion of the contradictions derived from capitalism's laws of development. Generally speaking, the question of the relationship of the historical de velopment of the capitalist mode of production to the critique of political economy can be called the historicity problem. In its resolution, one must take into account the fact, first of all, that theories of the new stages of the development of capitalism have their own historical preconditions (in particular, precursory empirical research), and secondly, that in spite of its pivotal position, the critique of political economy is not in itself suffi cient for explaining transformations; it must be linked to other theories.

ANALYSIS OF A GENERAL LOGICAL DISCOURSE FOR MAN‐MACHINE INTERACTION—PART II

Part I, presented in the preceding issue of Kybernetes, concluded with the analysis for establishing the normal sequences for the principal statements of a general logical discourse. Part II continues with an analyses for establishing the different types of sequences, the normal sequences for the secondary statements, the review sequences, and the repeat sequences. An analysis is presented for establishing the primitives that define a sequence graph for a general logical discourse, and the use of the primitives is demonstrated in the construction of a sequence graph for an example logical discourse. Finally, there are presented various plans for interaction between man and machine for the transfer of knowledge of a logical discourse and the application of the algorithm to the structuring of knowledge for a common discourse.

ANALYSIS OF A GENERAL LOGICAL DISCOURSE FOR MAN‐MACHINE INTERACTION — PART I

A mathematical analysis is made of a general logical discourse for the purpose of achieving a transfer of knowledge for any logical discourse from computer to man. There results an algorithm for structuring any logical discourse and a basis for the design of plans of interaction. In Part I, an analysis is made of a general logical discourse for establishing the sets and relations for the knowledge statements, for establishing the primitives that define a prerequisite graph, and for establishing the normal sequences for the principal statements. The use of the primitives is demonstrated in the construction of a prerequisite graph for an example logical discourse. In Part II (appearing in a subsequent issue) the analysis is continued for establishing other sequences, the primitives for a sequence graph, various plans for interaction, and the application to a common discourse.

Medieval Logic: An Outline of Its Development from 1250 to ca. 1400 by Philotheus Boehner, O. F. M., and: De Puritate Artis Logicae by Walter Burleigh

258 BOOK REVIEWS Medieval Logic: An Outline of Its Development from 11250 to ca. 1400. By PHILOTHEUS BoEHNER, 0. F. M. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 195~. Pp. 148. $3.00. De Puritate Artis Logicae. By WALTER BuRLEIGH. Edited by Philotheus Boehner, 0. F. M. St. Bonaventure: The Franciscan Institute and Louvain: E. Nauwelaerts, 1951. Pp. 131. $1.50. The first work is a booklet designed to promote harmony and understanding between scholastic and modern logicians. It is the author's contention that many modern scholastics do not have a genuinely scholastic logic since they do not consider logic as an essentially formal science. And the reason for this is that they are not acquainted with their own tradition, namely, genuine scholastic logic of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries wherein there is found a logic containing many elements of a strictly formal logic, so much so, that these elements appear to be definite anticipations, if not the exact doctrines, of modern logic. Avoiding the vague phrases, "traditional logic" and "classical logic," Fr. Boehner indicates precisely what he means by " nco-scholastic logic," " Aristotelian logic " and " modem logic," before stating and substantiating his conclusions. This is done in the Introduction. The body of the work is divided into three parts; Part One: Elements of Scholastic Logic; Part Two: Important Contributions of Scholastic Logic; and Part Three: Systems of Scholastic Logic. Part One is divided into two chapters: I, The Legacy of Scholastic Logic, and II, New Elements of Scholastic Logic. For the legacy of scholastic logic he has chosen Albert the Great's logical works as his source. There are eleven works cited, paraphrases on the six works of the Organon plus paraphrases on Boethius's works on division, categorical syllogisms, and hypothetical syllogisms. The other two works are Albert's treatment of the material found in Porphyry's Isagoge and Gilbert de la Poree's Six Principles. These works are merely listed and summarily described with regard to their contents. The new elements which Fr. Boehner lists in chapter two are the small tracts added by later scholastics which he divides into five groups: 1. De Syncategorematibus, ~- De proprietatibus terminorum , 3. De insolubili, 4. De obligatione, 5. De consequentiis. Part Two contains three chapters: I, The Syncategoremata As Logical Constants; II, The Theory of Supposition; and III, The Theory of Consequences . In the first chapter. Fr. Boehner indicates clearly the distinction between categorematic and syncategorematic words and the significative and suppositional dependence of the latter upon the former. He sees in this distinction a definite parallelism with the modern distinction between the constants and variables of logical discourse. A splendid quotation from Albert of Saxony shows that the latter considered the syncategoremata as formal elements which do not change. This is another indication of the BOOK REVIEWS ~59 formalized· character of medieval logic. In the second chapter Fr. Boehner briefly schematizes the theories of Peter of Spain, William Ockham, and Walter Burleigh on supposition. He likens the theory of supposition to the modern functional calculus. In chapter three the author treats of the notion and division of consequences according to William Ockham and Albert of Saxony. He also gives a brief survey of the consequential rules found in Ockham which have corresponding theorems of the propositional calculus. He gives the rule in translation, followed by the Latin text; then he explains and gives an instance of the rule; finally, he places it in symbolization. Part Three contains only one chapter in which the author merely indicates the content of five medieval logicians' works by schematizing a division of their most important logical opus. The five logicians summarized in this manner are Peter of Spain, William Ockham, John Buridan, Walter Burleigh, and Albert of Saxony. Two appendices contain a few sophismata of Albert of Saxony as well as a major portion of his rules of supposition. The second work is believed to be the first edited text of the shorter of two texts bearing the name De Puritate Artis Logicae. It contains Burleigh 's treatment of the general rules of consequences and a much longer discussion (eighty per cent of the text) on the syncategoremata. The publication of this text...

The Poetry of Julio Herrera y Reissig and French Symbolism

When most successful, the Uruguayan poet Julio Herrera y Reissig (1875–1910) wrote within the aesthetic assumptions of the French Symbolists and Decadents. He followed them in their revolt against reason, which was of course the continuation of a Romantic attitude. Because it tries to avoid logical discourse, his poetry, as well as that of his predecessors, tends to an excessive dependence on the use of sensorial representations. Through images, which in themselves carry no meaning, the Symbolist poet transmits his emotional state and conveys his understanding of nature. It is his task to create a system of coordinates with a complete existence of its own. The third dimension—the one which is to awaken in the reader a response parallel to the poet's experience—is the power of suggestion which supplies the depth in an otherwise two-dimensional world. The suggestive power of an image, when incorporated into a context, can radiate and penetrate the several spheres of meaning necessary in the creation of a symbol. This system of coordinates may become an explication of the significance of natural phenomena—a myth—when it is considered as the relation of its own individuality and the reality to which it refers by indirection.