Themes from the History of Logic

Abstract

In the course of the discussion in Chapter 1 of the various distinctions of names, I alluded several times to the insights of the older logicians, thereby revealing something of the historical backgrounds of Mill’s classification of names. Mill himself repeatedly bore witness to his awareness of standing upon the shoulders of his predecessors when handling terms and propositions. The motto, borrowed from Condorcet, of the first book of A System of Logic points in this direction: “Scholasticism, which produced in logic … a subtlety, a precision of ideas, the habit of which was unknown to the ancients, has contributed more than one can believe to the progress of good philosophy” (see SL, p. 18). Mill, as one agreeing with this assessment, appeals a number of times in connection with his classification of names to the “schoolmen.”