Category Archives: Logic

Logical Errors in a Logic Textbook, Alas!

Posted on May 14, 2018 by Rchard E. Hennessey

1. Early on in his Socratic Logic, Peter Kreeft offers what I’ll take to be two arguments in favor of a thesis that traditional, or Aristotelian, logic is superior to modern, or symbolic or mathematical, logic, that, indeed, modern logic … Continue reading →

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Some Basic Observations about Two True Propositions, Two False Propositions, and the President of the United States

Posted on February 20, 2017 by Rchard E. Hennessey

There has been some talk lately about truth, more specifically truth in a time dubbed the “post-truth” era. The point of the present post is to set forth what I think can be taken to be some basic data, basic … Continue reading →

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Making Sense of Ontological Irrationalism

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Rchard E. Hennessey

In his November 17, 2016, post on Siris, “Implying Bottom,”* Brandon Watson casts a critical eye on a paragraph contained in an article by Stephen Maitzen, “The Problem of Magic.”** The two then, in the Comments section, engage in nicely … Continue reading →

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A Distinction between Scientisms

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Rchard E. Hennessey

In the opening chapter, “0,” of his Scholastic Metaphysics. A Contemporary Introduction,* Edward Feser tells us (pp. 9-10) that Of course, not every contemporary analytic philosopher welcomes the revival of old-fashioned metaphysics. There are those who decry it in the … Continue reading →

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Logic and Public Discourse: Something of a Minor Case Study

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Rchard E. Hennessey

0. I have just had the pleasure of reading an article in Crisis Magazine, the “Logic: What’s Missing from Public Discourse” of April 30, 2014, by Randall B. Smith, a professor of theology and the holder of the Scanlan Foundation … Continue reading →

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Universal Propositions and “Existential Import”

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Rchard E. Hennessey

Introduction. In a note (25, p. 171) in Christopher Shields’ quite admirable overview, Aristotle (2nd edition; London and New York: Routledge, 2014), we find the following passage, setting forth (Ibid., p. 143) the “three simple and, he [Aristotle] thinks, intuitively … Continue reading →

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Why Logic, Briefly Illustrated

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Rchard E. Hennessey

It has occurred to me that some might question why, in my immediately previous post, the “The Inconsistency of the Doctrine of (the Distinction of Divine Persons and so That of) the Trinity with Monotheism” of April 4, 2014, I went … Continue reading →

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