Subject: Re: [HM] Truth tables
From: Luigi Borzacchini (gibi@pascal.dm.uniba.it)
Date: Thu Apr 27 2000 - 04:23:04 EDT
> Concerning the discussion, the open problem is to define the
> notion of "truth tables".
> For example the syllogistic diagrams in Aristotle's Analytica
> Posterior can also be treated as (kind of) truth tables.
> Or, I am wrong?
>
> Milan Bozic
Dear Milan,
I think that Aristotle's syllogisms concern basically with
inclusion/entailment and disjunction/alternative relationships
("dictum de omni et nullo"), with probably a sharper 'intensional'
than 'extensional' shade (forms, genus/species, specific difference,
etc.). The syllogistic diagrams follow from suitable connections
between two such relationships sharing a common (medium) term.
In addition, we must remember that Aristotle's logic does not
deal with "propositions" but just with classes/terms, because it
must be an organon in the construction of an ontological universe
of substances, where the first substances are the individuals with
their forms.
Finally, Aristotle simply does not analyze connectives, and
probably he considered rules like "'A and B' is true iff both 'A'
and 'B' are true" as trivial, because in ancient Greek without a
language/metalanguage distinction it sounds as simple linguistic
practice concerning the 'dual', nothing to do with syllogisms.
Best wishes
Luigi Borzacchini
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Thu Apr 27 2000 - 08:26:54 EDT