The Early History of Logical Form

Abstract

The term ‘logical form’ is generally used to denote a property of sentences. The property denoted is called ‘logical’ because it is regarded as important from the logical point of view, and it is called ‘form’ because it is taken to be distinct from the specific semantic features that constitute their matter. As a first approximation, we can say that one has a notion of logical form if one thinks that there is such a property, independently of whether one deliberately employs some expression that refers to that property. So it is reasonable to presume that some understanding of logical form existed long before the term ‘logical form’ was introduced in the philosophical lexicon. As this chapter will explain, the idea of logical form is as old as logic itself. Its origin lies in the recognition of patterns of inference that can be identified by schematizing some of the expressions that occur in their instances.