A History of Formal Logic by I. M. Bochenski (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 188 which is most appropriately called " loving God with the mind," is as great an inconsistency as writing books for illiterates. It is in this spirit that we allow Rev. Brown to assess his own work. " These convictions are not my own creation. . . . None of us understands them fully.... All our attempts to express our faith-excepting liturgy and prayer, and perhaps occasionally even then, must include an echo of laughter.... Authentic religious language is not the language of books and arguments but the language of liturgy and prayer.... Protestantism when all is said and done is more adequately represented by its hymns and prayers than by its textbooks ..." (p. x). Having watched for 226 pages, we must concur. Marymov:nt College, New York, N.Y. IGNATIUs McGuiNEss, 0. P. A History of Formal Logic. By I. M. BocHENSKI and translated by Ivo THoMAS. Published by University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1961. Pp. 567, with indices. $20.00. Fr. Bochenski's history of formal logic, completed some five years ago in the German language edition of Formale Logik, was intended to be the "first comprehensive" history of the problems of formal logic. Aware that a scientific study of logicians and their writings, extending over twenty centuries, was more than one man could effectively accomplish, the author readily admits that his Formale Logik really mirrors the collective efforts of very many scholars. To such men and to such schools of scientific research, especially those of the Warsaw and Munster he gives most credit for being able to present and to interpret scientifically about a thousand original texts. The author begins by defining the centre and scope of formal logic. In so doing he hopes to avoid the mistakes and shortcomings of most historians of formal logic in the past. After pointing out how he is going to proceed in the telling of the history of logic, he narrates 'in capsule form its geographical and chronological evolution. He next makes clear why he has adopted the methodology employed throughout, because " logic shows no linear continuity of evolution,'' and " the essential feature of the whole history of logic seems then to he the appearance of different varieties of this science separated both in time and space " (p. 12) . He pictures the four distinctive varieties of logic (ancient, scholastic, mathematical and Indian) as aspects of the same one reality and suggests that there are at least a half-dozen empirical reasons" for speaking of one logic" {p.14). Despite the " depressions " experienced in each variety of logic, over the years a noticeable and genuine progress has been made. Fr. Bochenski relies greatly on the textual evidence of the logicians themselves. He explains that such a 184 BOOK REVIEWS " documented history " will more perfectly and more scientifically delineate " the history of the problematic together with the complex of essential ideas and methods that are closely connected with it " (p. 18) . Realizing the handicaps in adopting such a scientific methodology and a non-linear view of logic's evolution, he frankly admits that he is aiming at a type of general orientation in the specific problems, methods and notions characteristic of each of the four varieties of logic. In this way, the author assures the reader that a" general course of the history of logic and its laws" (p. 19) will be presented in the succeeding :five Parts. His methodology becomes more apparent in Part II. For the Hellenic variety of logic, fathered by Socrates, the author has both respect and praise. Strange as it may seem, it is " the relatively best-known period in the development of formal logic " (p. 27) . Beginning with the pre-Aristotelians and some of their more important contributions, Fr. Bochenski credits Zeno with fashioning an axiomatized system of logical inferences and Plato as " the :first to grasp and formulate a clear idea of logic " and " that his thought made possible the emergence of the science with Aristotle " (p. 89). His extensive treatment of " the :first formal logician," Aristotle, who " was undoubtedly the most fertile logician there has ever been " (p. 27) occupies the major part of the second period of antiquity. His careful exposition of...