The principles of science : $b a treatise on logic and scientific methodJevons, William Stanley
Philosophy
The principles of science : $b a treatise on logic and scientific method
Jevons, William Stanley
Logic; Science -- Methodology
We learn from this table, for instance, that two propositions of
the form A = AB, B = BC, which are such as constitute the premises
of the old syllogism Barbara, exclude as impossible four of the
eight combinations in which three terms may be united, and that
these propositions are capable of taking twenty-four variations by
transpositions of the terms or the introduction of negatives. This
table then presents the results of a complete analysis of all the
possible logical relations arising in the case of three terms, and the
old syllogism forms but one out of fifteen typical forms. Generally
speaking, every form can be converted into apparently different
propositions; thus the fourth type A = B, B = BC may appear in the
form A = ABC, *a* = *ab*, or again in the form of three propositions
A = AB, B = BC, *a*B = *a*B*c*; but all these sets of premises yield
identically the same series of combinations, and are therefore of
equivalent logical meaning. The fifth type, or Barbara, can also be
thrown into the equivalent forms A = ABC, *a*B = *a*BC and A = AC,
B = A ꖌ *a*BC. In other cases I have obtained the very same logical
conditions in four modes of statements. As regards mere appearance and
form of statement, the number of possible premises would be very great,
and difficult to exhibit exhaustively.
The most remarkable of all the types of logical condition is the
fourteenth, namely, A = BC ꖌ *bc*. It is that which expresses the
division of a genus into two doubly marked species, and might be
illustrated by the example--“Component of the physical universe =
matter, gravitating, or not-matter (ether), not-gravitating.” It is
capable of only two distinct logical variations, namely, A = BC ꖌ *bc*
and A = B*c* ꖌ *b*C. By transposition or negative change of the letters
we can indeed obtain six different expressions of each of these
propositions; but when their meanings are analysed, by working out the
combinations, they are found to be logically equivalent to one or other
of the above two. Thus the proposition A = BC ꖌ *bc* can be written in
any of the following five other modes,
*a* = *b*C ꖌ B*c*, B = CA ꖌ *ca*, *b* = *c*A ꖌ C*a*,
C = AB ꖌ *ab*, *c* = *a*B ꖌ A*b*.
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