Introduction To Logic - Sullivan Flashcards
Aristotle said that all human beings, by nature, desire to…
know.
Logic studies reason itself as a…
tool of knowledge.
What are the three acts of the human intellect?
- Simple apprehension
- Judgement
- Reasoning
What is Tassawur/Simple apprehension/Simplex intellegentsia?
Taṣawwur is the intellect’s grasp of a single, indivisible meaning (maʿnā) without affirming or denying anything about it.
In English: “simple apprehension”—grasping a concept, not making a judgment.
In Latin scholasticism, this was called simplex intelligentia.
How do we form Tassawur/simple apprehension?
The intellect abstracts universal meanings from experience. For example:
- We see many individual cats.
- The intellect strips away the accidental features (color, size) and retains the universal form or essence.
- This becomes the concept “cat” in the mind.
This universal, grasped by the intellect, is the mafhūm (mental concept). It’s what we mean when we say taṣawwur.
When we create a word for a ‘concept’ that we have in our minds, it is called a….
Term
What is the goal of the first act of the intellect, the simple apprehension?
The goal of the first act of the intellect is to DEFINE A TERM. (describe the essence or nature of a thing to distinguish it from others)
the aim of judgements is to…
make propositions (describe the way things are - or are not – affirm or deny)
In any good deductive argument, three conditions must be met:
CTV
- terms must be CLEAR
- premises must be TRUE
- reasoning must be logically VALID
What is another way of remembering the three acts of the mind?
WWW
What
Whether
Why
Simple apprehension answers what something is.
judgements deal with whether something is.
Reasoning answers why something is.
Material logic is mainly concerned with…
the content of propositions
formal logic is mainly concerned with
the structure of propositions in an argument
What is a good analogy for material and formal logic?
Imagine a builder. He uses materials like brick and wood for building a house (material). He must make sure these materials are suitable, and assembled correctly for it to stand (formal).
Just like the house, a good argument depends on good material and form.
another one:
Material logic is like checking the quality of ingredients before cooking.
Formal logic is like checking whether the recipe steps are followed properly, regardless of whether the ingredients are good.
what does it mean to say that a concept has ‘universality’?
That it is applicable to many individuals
What does ‘extension’ mean in relation to concepts?
the sum of all things to which that concept applies.
