Logic

Explanation

The classical definition calls logic an instrument (āla): it is not studied for its own sake but as a tool for the other sciences. For that reason it belongs to the instrumental sciences (ʿulūm al-āla), together with Arabic grammar, morphology and rhetoric.

Logic deals with known concepts and judgements and with how to move from them to something not yet known: through definition, to an unknown concept, and through argument, to an unknown judgement.

In the madrasa curriculum the study of logic traditionally begins with the Īsāghūjī of Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī (d. 663/1265), read with a commentary, before longer works such as al-Shamsiyya.

Also written as: mantiq, mantik, Islamic logic, ʿilm al-manṭiq.

Related terms

• Conception
• Assent
• Proposition
• Syllogism
• Universal