Sherilyn L. Loria What is science?

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Science is the concerted human effort to understand, or to understand better, the history of the natural world and how the natural world works, with 1 observable physical evidence as the basis of that understanding . It is done through observation of natural phenomena, and/or through experimentation that tries to simulate natural processes under controlled conditions. Consider some examples. An ecologist observing the territorial behaviors of bluebirds and a geologist examining the distribution of fossils in an outcrop are both scientists making observations in order to find patterns in natural phenomena. They just do it outdoors and thus entertain the general public with their behavior. An astrophysicist photographing distant galaxies and a climatologist sifting data from weather balloons similarly are also scientists making observations, but in more discrete settings. The examples above are observational science, but there is also experimental science. A chemist observing the rates of one chemical reaction at a variety of temperatures and a nuclear physicist recording the results of bombardment of a particular kind of matter with neutrons are both scientists performing experiments to see what consistent patterns emerge. A biologist observing the reaction of a particular tissue to various stimulants is likewise experimenting to find patterns of behavior. These folks usually do their work in labs and wear impressive white lab coats, which seems to mean they make more money too. The critical commonality is that all these people are making and recording observations of nature, or of simulations of nature, in order to learn more about how nature, in the broadest sense, works. We'll see below that one of their main goals is to show that old ideas (the ideas of scientists a century ago or perhaps just a year ago) are wrong and that, instead, new ideas may better explain nature. The systematic observation of natural events and conditions in order to discover facts about them and to formulate laws and principles based on these facts. 2. the organized body of knowledge that is derived from such observations and that can be verified or tested by further investigation. 3. any specific branch of this general body of knowledge, such as biology, physics, geology, or astronomy. ( Academic Press Dictionary of Science & Technology) Science is an intellectual activity carried on by humans that is designed to discover information about the natural world in which humans live and to discover the ways in which this information can be organized into meaningful patterns. A primary aim of science is to collect facts (data). An ultimate purpose of science is to discern the order that exists between and amongst the various facts.(Dr. Sheldon Gottlieb in a lecture series at the University of South Alabama) Science involves more than the gaining of knowledge. It is the systematic and organized inquiry into the natural world and its phenomena. Science is about gaining a deeper and often useful understanding of the world.( from the Multicultural History of Science page at Vanderbilt University.) Science consists simply of the formulation and testing of hypotheses based on observational evidence; experiments are important where applicable, but their function is merely to simplify observation by imposing controlled conditions.( Robert H. Dott, Jr., and Henry L. Batten, Evolution of the Earth (2nd edition)) Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers in the preceeding generation . . .As a matter of fact, I can also define science another way: Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. Richard Feynman, Nobelprize-winning physicist,in The Pleasure of Finding Things Out as quoted in American Scientist v. 87, p. 462 (1999).

As complex as the modern world has become, it seems unlikely that most of what surrounds us is actually the result of the ancient practice of philosophy. Everything from the structure of democratic governments to due process of law, from a physicians Hippocratic oath to computer software, has its roots in philosophy. Sadly, philosophy as a course of study is disappearing from our nations colleges, yet its focus on analytical thinking and problem solving is more vitally important today than ever.

Philosophy is an academic discipline that exercises reason and logic in an attempt to understand reality and answer fundamental questions about knowledge, life, morality and human nature. The ancient Greeks, who were among the first to practice philosophy, coined the term, which means love of wisdom. Those who study philosophy are called philosophers. Through the ages, philosophers have sought to answer such questions as, what is the meaning and purpose of life? How do we know what we know? Does God exist? What does it mean to possess consciousness? And, what is the value of morals?

Philosophers attempt to answer such questions through the philosophical method. The method usually begins when a philosopher examines his own beliefs and begins to doubt their validity. From his doubt, questions emerge. Before answering a question, the philosopher thoroughly analyzes it to

ensure it is clearly and properly defined. This helps narrow the path to the most precise answer. Next, the philosopher proposes possible answers to the question and provides reasoned arguments to support each one. The arguments are then critiqued by other philosophers, who may give rebuttals. Through this process of criticism and judgment, known as dialectic, philosophers attempt to prove the rationality of their beliefs and discover fundamental truths.

Its no coincidence that the philosophical method has much in common with the scientific method. Indeed, early science was known as natural philosophy. Philosophers like Aristotle developed the concepts of inductive and deductive reasoning that form the basis of modern scientific study. The roots of the physical sciences like physics and geology can be traced back to ancient philosophy.

Philosophy itself is generally considered a type of social science, like sociology or psychology. Thats because early philosophy was primarily concerned with describing the best way to live and organize society. From that spawned many other disciplines: economics, political science, law, linguistics, literary and art criticism, and theologyalong with sociology and psychology.

Though many of philosophys original topics have evolved into other fields of study over time, the discipline remains rich and varied. Modern philosophy contains six main branches of thought, each with their own unique focus:

Metaphysics: the nature of reality and the universe. Epistemology: the study of knowledge and how it is acquired. Logic: how to develop valid arguments; includes mathematical logic. Ethics: the study of right and wrong and how people should live. Politics: the study of government, citizen rights and political obligations. Aesthetics: beauty, art and artistic perception.

At first glance, it would appear that such study has little application in the real world. Yet, philosophy shapes modern existence. Unlocking the secrets of knowledge acquisition is the primary concern of passionate educators of young people around the globe. Logic forms the basis of all computer technology, as more precise programming commands increase computing speed and efficiency. Ethics plays a major role in medicine, law and foreign policy. Indeed, the hottest debates surrounding the issues of our timeabortion, capital punishment, welfare, environmentalism, torture and end-of-life careall stem from philosophical questions.

However, the study of philosophy is not necessarily about discovering all of the answers to lifes toughest questions. Skepticism lies at the heart of philosophy. Therefore, asking a question is more fundamentally important than answering one. In philosophy, questioning a deeply held belief or social practice sets one onto the path of true understanding, and its this understanding that leads to meaningful personal and social change. A good philosopher recognizes the danger of accepting knowledge at face value. Social or scientific theories may be untested or contain personal bias; trusting them immediately could result in terrible consequences.

Today, philosophers can be found working in nearly every career field. Some are scientists developing ways to test household products without using animals. Some are politicians and human rights activists fighting for changes in foreign policy that will alleviate war and poverty for millions of Third

World citizens. Some are economists seeking practical solutions to economic inequality. Still others are programmers working on the cutting edge of technology to develop faster and more efficient computer software.

Those who study philosophy also tend to lead fulfilling and successful lives. Some of historys most well-known figures were philosophers: Socrates, Plato, John Locke, Friedrich Nietzsche, John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Noam Chomsky, to name a few.

The word philosophy literally means love of wisdom;1 this tells us something about the nature of philosophy, but not much, because many disciplines seek wisdom. How does philosophy differ from these other disciplines? A brief look at the historical development of the field will help us to answer this question. On the standard way of telling the story, humanity's first systematic inquiries took place within a mythological or religious framework: wisdom ultimately was to be derived from sacred traditions and from individuals thought to possess privileged access to a supernatural (and, presumably, honest and error-proof) realm; the legitimacy of these traditions or access of these individuals, in turn, generally was not questioned. However, starting in the sixth century BCE, there appeared in ancient Greece a series of thinkers whose inquiries were comparatively secular (see "The Milesians and the Origin of Philosophy").2 Presumably, these thinkers conducted their inquiries through reason and observation, rather than through tradition or revelation. These thinkers were the first philosophers. Although this picture is admittedly simplistic, the basic distinction has stuck: philosophy in its most primeval form is considered nothing less than secular inquiry itself.3 However, there are now many forms of secular inquiry, so what distinguishes philosophy from them? In the beginning, there was perhaps no distinction. But, as civilization advanced, two parts of philosophy became so powerful in their own right that they separated off, claiming for themselves the status of independent disciplines. Mathematics was the first, and split off very early in the game; science (or natural philosophy, as it was called even into the nineteenth century) was the second, splitting off much later. To modern philosophy is left whatever questions these two disciplines cannot solve (at least at a given time), including not only questions that are traditionally thought to be beyond the two (e.g. "What is the meaning of life?"), but also theoretical questions at their fringes (e.g. "Can natural selection operate at the species level?") and conceptual questions at their foundations (e.g. "What is science?"). Philosophy, of course, is best known for the first class of questions, which includes some of the most difficult and important questions there are, such as whether or not there is a god, how one can know anything at all, and how a person ought to live. Philosophy is characterized as much by its methods as by its subject matter. Although philosophers deal with speculative issues that generally are not subject to investigation through experimental test, and philosophy therefore is more fully conceptual than science, philosophy properly done is not mere speculation. Philosophers, just like scientists, formulate hypotheses which ultimately must answer to reason and evidence.4 This is one of the things that differentiates philosophy from poetry and mysticism, despite its not being a science.5 The Branches of Philosophy The four main branches of philosophy are logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics: Logic is the attempt to codify the rules of rational thought. Logicians explore the structure of arguments that preserve truth or allow the optimal extraction of knowledge from evidence. Logic is one of the primary tools philosophers use in their inquiries; the precision of logic helps them to cope with the subtlety of philosophical problems and the often misleading nature of conversational language.

Epistemology is the study of knowledge itself. Epistemologists ask, for instance, what criteria must be satisfied for something we believe to count as something we know, and even what it means for a proposition to be true. Metaphysics is the study of the nature of things. Metaphysicians ask what kinds of things exist, and what they are like. They reason about such things as whether or not people have free will, in what sense abstract objects can be said to exist, and how it is that brains are able to generate minds.

Axiology is an umbrella term for different studies that center upon the nature of different types of value.6 These different studies include aesthetics, which investigates the nature of such things as beauty and art; social philosophy and political philosophy; and, most prominently, ethics, which investigates the nature of right and wrong, and of good and evil, both in theoretical considerations about the foundations of morality, and in practical considerations about the fine details of moral conduct. Many professional philosophers also double as historians, researching one or another aspect of the history of philosophical thought. Even those who do not conduct novel historical research typically see great value in the texts of thinkers as far back as the ancient Greeks, and study these texts both for philosophical insight and enjoyment. Arguably, history of philosophy may be considered a fifth branch of philosophy. As you can tell, the different branches of philosophy overlap one another. A philosopher considering whether people ought to give excess wealth to the poor is asking an ethical question. However, his investigations might lead him to wonder whether or not standards of right and wrong are built into the fabric of the universe, which is a metaphysical question. If he claims that people are justified in taking a particular stance on that question, he is making at least a tacit epistemological claim. At every step in his reasoning, he will want to employ logic to minimize the chance of being led into error by the great complexity and obscurity of the questions. He may very well look to some of the ethical, metaphysical, and epistemological writings of past philosophers to see how his brightest predecessors reasoned about the matter. Aspects of each branch of philosophy can be studied in isolation, but philosophical questions have a way of leading to other philosophical questions, to the point that a full investigation of any particular problem is likely eventually to involve almost the whole of the philosophical enterprise. The Demands of Philosophy Philosophical inquiry is very demanding, suitable only for those who possess a fair degree of courage, humility, patience and discipline. Doing philosophy requires courage, because one never knows what one will find at the end of a philosophical investigation. Since philosophy deals with the most fundamental and important issues of human existence, and since these are things that most people initially take for granted, genuine philosophical inquiry has great potential to unsettle or even to destroy one's deepest and most cherished beliefs. Genuine philosophical inquiry also carries the risk of isolation among one's peers, both for the unorthodox views to which it may lead one, and for the simple unpopularity of critical thinking. A philosopher must be able to face both consequences. Doing philosophy requires humility, because to do philosophy one must always keep firmly in mind how little one knows and how easy it is to fall into error. The very initiation of philosophical inquiry requires one to admit to oneself that one may not, after all, have all of the answers. Doing philosophy requires both patience and discipline, because philosophical inquiry requires long hours of hard work. One must be prepared to commit huge amounts of time to laboring over issues both difficult and subtle. People who avoid philosophy often complain that thinking about philosophical questions makes their heads hurt. This is unavoidable: if the answers come easily to you, your inquiries almost certainly are superficial. To do philosophy, one must commit oneself to pain. The only difference between one who chooses to shoulder the pain and one who does not is that the former recognizes that there is no shortcut to truth: every advance must be fought for tooth and nail. These virtues always are imperfectly represented in any given person, which is why philosophy is best done in a community: the critical scrutiny of other thinkers provides an often necessary check on defects invisible to one's own eyes. The Rewards of Philosophy

But if philosophy is so demanding, why should anyone even bother with it? In the first place, there is great utility in philosophical inquiry, even for someone who does not innately care about the pursuit of truth. Consider a random handful of classic philosophical questions: What is the meaning of life? What is the nature of justice? What does it take for a belief to be justified? Is the world we see illusion or reality? The answers to such questions cannot help but to have a critical impact on how one ought to live one's life. Surely one should subject one's intuitive beliefs about these things to critical scrutiny, and work hard to come as close to truth as possible. Many philosophical questions are fundamental to human life; the only reason it often does not seem that way is that people simply assume they know what the answers to these questions are, without ever daring to make a serious inquiry. This leads us to the second reason why one ought to do philosophy: to understand is ennobling. To go through life simply assuming one understands, is not. To be sure, one can perhaps be happy, at least in the same way as a well-fed dog is happy, if one manages to make it all the way through life without questioning anything. Philosophical inquiry, on the other hand, can be disquieting, offering no guarantee that your hard work will yield the conclusions you hope for. Even worse, philosophy gives you no guarantee that your investigations will yield any conclusion at all: at the end of the day, you may find yourself not only stripped of the certainties with which you began, but also with no new ones to put in their place. If you do philosophy, you may well have to learn to live with perpetual uncertainty, while others, in their ignorance, happily profess perfect knowledge of things they do not understand at all. But it is clear who has the better life: far better to understand, even if the main thing you understand is the limit of your own knowledge. And a final reason for studying philosophy is that, for all of the pains and difficulties associated with it, the pursuit and acquisition of knowledge is enjoyable. To be sure, it is a refined enjoyment, and it is often hard to see from the outside what the appeal is. But once you become immersed in it, it carries its own immediate rewards, and it is difficult to resist becoming addicted to it. I have experienced most of the same pleasures everyone else has,7 but in the end, none of them hold a candle to the pleasures of the mind: the sheer pleasure of studying and investigating, and sometimes even understanding. Notes 1 From the Greek philia (friendship/love) or philos (friend/lover) and sophia (wisdom). According to the admittedly unreliable Diogenes Laertius (Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, I.VIII), the term philosopher was introduced by Pythagoras, who preferred it to the less modest title of sophist, or "wise man." 2 The standard story, wherein the Milesians literally are the first secular thinkers, cannot literally be true; it is scarcely possible that human thought could have been uniformly superstitiousbroadly, yes, but not uniformlyat any time in history. However, we have no formal record of the Milesian style of thought prior to the "official" advent of philosophy. 3 To say that philosophy is secular does not mean that it is anti-religious, but only that it is independent of religion. If one needed to be anti-religious or even nonreligious to do philosophy, the history of philosophy would be very slim. To say that philosophy is secular is also not to deny that there are many thinkers, arguably including most of the first philosophers themselves, for whom it is not always clear whether they are doing philosophy or theology: philosophy, like any other discipline, has gray boundaries. 4 In saying this, am I ruling out Continental philosophy by stipulation? I don't think so, at least not across the board. To be sure, Continental philosophers do not write like analytic philosophers, and I consider that a vice, but I am not sure that their rock-bottom commitments really are that different. The phenomenologists and existentialists I am familiar with seem to base their thought upon rational and evidential grounds as much as anyone else; even with postmodernists, I am not sure that the open disdain for reason and evidence is more than just talk. Am I ruling out from philosophy anyone whose inquiries do not ultimately rely upon reason and evidence? Yes, and unapologetically so. 5 I need to make another qualification here. It is not that poetry and literature cannot overlap with philosophy. It all depends on whether we are talking about the mode of expression, or the source of the ideas in the first place. Camus, for instance, expressed himself very well through the medium of novels and plays, but the thoughts he expressed seem to have been worked out by appeals to reason and evidence. I would contrast that with, say, Whitman's poem which expresses disgust with the way astronomers dissect everything, and contrasts their efforts with the beauty of the night sky. I suspect Whitman was just articulating feelings, and not a rationally worked out position: however deep his feelings might be, and however much grist they might provide for a philosophical mill, Whitman still was not doing philosophy. 6 The term axiology sometimes (and perhaps more properly) is used in a more constrained way, to refer strictly to the study of questions of value; in such usage, axiology cuts across the studies I list, functioning as a component of each rather than an umbrella term for all. 7 Two I haven't experienced are drunkenness and drug euphoria. Since our advanced ability to reason is one of the very few things that (when we use it) elevates humans above other animals, it is difficult for me to understand the appeal of immoderate use of mind-altering substances. The mass appeal of drugs and overindulgence in alcohol seems to me an example of collective madness. Both are antithetical to the spirit of analytic philosophy. What is logic? Logic encompasses many different kinds of study, so that one might wonder what the common thread is. Some claim that logic is the study of truth, and is thus the most basic and fundamental science. While every science aims at truth, logic is the science of truth itself. It tries to discover the truth about truth. Logic studies truth in the same way that biology studies living things. Others say that logic is concerned with thought, and tries to discover the laws of thought. These laws do not describe the way people actually think, for that is the task of psychology. Rather, they prescribe the way people ought to think; they describe the way a perfect mind thinks. Logic is like ethics and morality, in that it separates right from wrong. Logic, one might say, is the ethics of thought and belief. Others say that logic is essentially concerned with language, in some way. Logic tries to understand the logical form of statements, and certain structural relations between sentences. It is certainly true that logicians spend a lot of time studying languages, especially the artificial languages that logicians themselves have devised. Much of this course will consist of learning how to use artificial languages. Logicians also study natural languages, such as English, French, Mandarin and so on. In my view, logic is concerned with all three of these, with thought, with language, and with truth. This is possible, since these three things are closely connected. But how? This is a controversial area in philosophy, which we shall explore a little.

1.1 Meaning Lets start with language. A language consists of symbols, which are usually marks on paper or spoken sounds. (They may be other things, such as smoke signals.) These symbols are linked, via convention, with meanings, so that language can be used for communication. When words are spoken, the meaning is conveyed from speaker to listener. It should be noted that language has a variety of uses, such as to express emotions, to give commands, and to ask questions. In this course however we are only concerned with one function of language, namely the attempt to convey information. The first thing to recognise about language is that a sentence is the smallest piece of language that makes up an act of communication, or conveys information. Smaller linguistic units, such as individual words, do not communicate anything by themselves. They do not express statements. The meaning of a word comes from its contribution to 2 the meanings of sentences that contain that word. Thus the fundamental kind of meaning is the meaning of a sentence. Since logic is concerned with information, the only kind of sentence we are interested in is the kind that makes a claim, or an assertion of fact. (This is called a declarative sentence.) Declarative sentences may state mere opinions, as well as known facts. They may also state things that are false even things that the speaker knows to be false. A sentence is declarative if it says something that a person could believe. Consider, for example, the sentence I hereby resign from this committee. It does convey information since, when uttered by (say) Janet, it tells the audience that Janet is resigning from the committee. But it does more than this: it also performs the act of resigning from the committee. It is in saying those words that Janet severs her ties to that committee. For this reason, the sentence is not declarative. In a similar way, questions are not declarative sentences, since they request information. Even if they sometimes supply information as well, they do not merely assert (alleged) facts as a declarative sentence does. MODULE: Basic logic TUTORIAL L01: What is logic? L01.1 A preliminary definition The term "logic" came from the Greek word logos, which is sometimes translated as "sentence", "discourse", "reason", "rule", and "ratio". Of course, these translations are not enough to help us understand the more specialized meaning of "logic" as it is used today. So what is logic? Briefly speaking, we might define logic as the study of the principles of correct reasoning. This is a rough definition, because how logic should be properly defined is actually quite a controversial matter. However, for the purpose of this tour, we thought it would be useful to give you at least some rough idea as to the subject matter that you will be studying. So this is what we shall try to do on this page. L01.2 Logic is not the psychology of reasoning One thing you should note about this definition is that logic is concerned with the principles of correct reasoning. Studying the correct principles of reasoning is not the same as studying the psychology of reasoning. Logic is the former discipline, and it tells us how we ought to reason if we want to reason correctly. Whether people actually follow these rules of correct reasoning is an empirical matter, something that is not the concern of logic. The psychology of reasoning, on the other hand, is an empirical science. It tells us about the actual reasoning habits of people, including their mistakes. A psychologist studying reasoning might be interested in how people's ability to reason varies with age. But such empirical facts are of no concern to the logician.

L01.3 The principles of logic So what are these principles of reasoning that are part of logic? There are many such principles, but the main (not the only) thing that we study in logic are principles governing the validity of arguments - whether certain conclusions follow from some given assumptions. For example, consider the following three arguments : If Tom is a philosopher, then Tom is poor. Tom is a philosopher. Therefore, Tom is poor.

If K>10, then K>2. K>10. Therefore, K>2. If Tarragona is in Europe, then Tarragona is not in China. Tarragona is in Europe. Therefore, Tarragona is not in China. These three arguments here are obviously good arguments in the sense that their conclusions follow from the assumptions. If the assumptions of the argument are true, the conclusion of the argument must also be true. A logician will tell us that they are all cases of a particular form of argument known as modus ponens.We shall be discussing validity again later on. It should be pointed out that logic is not just concerned with the validity of arguments. Logic also studies consistency, and logical truths, and properties of logical systems such as completeness and soundness. But we shall see that these other concepts are also very much related to the concept of validity.

L01.4 Topic neutrality Modus ponens might be used to illustrate two features about the rules of reasoing in logic. The first feature is its topic-neutrality. As the four examples suggest, modus ponens can be used in reasoning about diverse topics. This is true of all the principles of reasoning in logic. The laws of biology might be true only of living creatures, and the laws of economics are only applicable to collections of agents that enagage in financial transactions. But the principles of logic are universal principles which are more general than biology and economics. This is in part what is implied in the following definitions of logic by two very famous logicians :

L01.5 Necessity in logic A second feature of the principles of logic is that they are non-contingent, in the sense that they do not depend on any particular accidental features of the world. Physics and the other empirical sciences investigate the way the world actually is. Physicists might tell us that no signal can travel faster than the speed of light, but if the laws of physics have been different, then perhaps this would not have been true. Similarly, biologists might study how dolphins communicate with each other, but if the course of evolution had been different, then perhaps dolphins might not have existed. So the theories in the empirical sciences are contingent in the sense that they could have been otherwise. The principles of logic, on the other hand, are derived using reasoning only, and their validity does not depend on any contingent features of the world. For example, logic tells us that any statement of the form "If P then P." is necessarily true. This is a principle of the second kind that logician study. This principle tells us that a statement such as "if it is raining, then it is raining" must be true. We can easily see that this is indeed the case, whether or not it is actually raining. Furthermore, even if the laws of physics or weather patterns were to change, this statement will remain true. Thus we say that scientific truths (mathematics aside) are contingent whereas logical truths are necessary. Again this shows how logic is different from the empirical sciences like physics, chemistry or biology.

L01.6 Formal and informal logic Sometimes a distinction is made between informal logic and formal logic. The term "informal logic" is often used to mean the same thing as critical thinking. Sometimes it is used to refer to the study of reasoning and fallacies in the context of everyday life. "Formal logic" is mainly concerned with formal systems of logic. These are specially constructed systems for carrying out proofs, where the languages and rules of reasoning are precisely and carefully defined. Sentential logic (also known as "Propositional logic") and Predicate Logic are both examples of formal systems of logic. There are many reasons for studying formal logic. One is that formal logic helps us identify patterns of good reasoning and patterns of bad reasoning, so we know which to follow and which to avoid. This is why studying basic formal logic can help improve critical thinking. Formal systems of logic are also used by linguists to study natural languages. Computer scientists also employ formal systems of logic in research relating to Aritificial Intelligence. Finally, many philosophers also like to use formal logic when dealing with complicated philosophical problems, in order to make their reasoning more explicit and precise. Logic (from the Greek logik)[1] is the study of valid reasoning.[2] Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines ofphilosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science. It examines general forms that arguments may take, which forms are valid, and which are fallacies. In philosophy, the study of logic is applied in most major areas: metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, and ethics. In mathematics, it is the study of validinferences within some formal language.[3] Logic is also studied in argumentation theory.[4] Logic was studied in several ancient civilizations, including India,[5] China,[6] and Greece. In the West, logic was established as a formal discipline by Aristotle, who gave it a fundamental place in philosophy. The study of logic was part of the classical trivium, which also included grammar and rhetoric.

Logic is often divided into three parts, inductive reasoning, abductive reasoning, and deductive reasoning. History Main article: History of logic The earliest sustained work on the subject of logic is that of Aristotle.[14] Aristotelian logic became widely accepted in science and mathematics and remained in wide use in the West until the early 19th century. syllogism,
[16] [15]

Aristotle's system of logic was responsible for the introduction of hypothetical

temporal modal logic,

[17][18]

and inductive logic.

[19]

In Europe during the later medieval period, major efforts were made to show that

Aristotle's ideas were compatible with Christianfaith. During the High Middle Ages, logic became a main focus of philosophers, who would engage in critical logical analyses of philosophical arguments. The Chinese logical philosopher Gongsun Long (ca. 325250 BC) proposed the paradox "One and one cannot become two, since neither becomes two."
[20]

In China, the tradition of scholarly investigation into logic, however, was repressed by the Qin dynasty following the legalist philosophy of Han

Feizi. In India, innovations in the scholastic school, called Nyaya, continued from ancient times into the early 18th century with the Navya-Nyaya school. By the 16th century, it developed theories resembling modern logic, such as Gottlob Frege's "distinction between sense and reference of proper names" and his "definition of number," as well as the theory of "restrictive conditions for universals" anticipating some of the developments in modern set theory.[21] Since 1824, Indian logic attracted the attention of many Western scholars, and has had an influence on important 19th-century logicians such as Charles Babbage, Augustus De Morgan, and George Boole.[22] In the 20th century, Western philosophers like Stanislaw Schayer and Klaus Glashoff have explored Indian logic more extensively. The syllogistic logic developed by Aristotle predominated in the West until the mid-19th century, when interest in the foundations of mathematics stimulated the development of symbolic logic (now called mathematical logic). In 1854, George Boole published An Investigation of the Laws of Thought on Which are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities, introducing symbolic logic and the principles of what is now known as Boolean logic. In 1879, Gottlob Frege published Begriffsschrift which inaugurated modern logic with the invention of quantifier notation. From 1910 to 1913, Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell published Principia Mathematica[9] on the foundations of mathematics, attempting to derive mathematical truths from axioms and inference rules in symbolic logic. In 1931, Gdel raised serious problems with the foundationalist program and logic ceased to focus on such issues. The development of logic since Frege, Russell, and Wittgenstein had a profound influence on the practice of philosophy and the perceived nature of philosophical problems (see Analytic philosophy), and Philosophy of mathematics. Logic, especially sentential logic, is implemented in computer logic circuits and is fundamental to computer science. Logic is commonly taught by university philosophy departments, often as a compulsory discipline. Topics in logic

Syllogistic logic Main article: Aristotelian logic

The Organon was Aristotle's body of work on logic, with the Prior Analytics constituting the first explicit work in formal logic, introducing the syllogistic.[23] The parts of syllogistic logic, also known by the name term logic, are the analysis of the judgements into propositions consisting of two terms that are related by one of a fixed number of relations, and the expression of inferences by means of syllogisms that consist of two propositions sharing a common term as premise, and a conclusion which is a proposition involving the two unrelated terms from the premises. Aristotle's work was regarded in classical times and from medieval times in Europe and the Middle East as the very picture of a fully worked out system. However, it was not alone: the Stoicsproposed a system of propositional logic that was studied by medieval logicians. Also, the problem of multiple generality was recognised in medieval times. Nonetheless, problems with syllogistic logic were not seen as being in need of revolutionary solutions.

Today, some academics claim that Aristotle's system is generally seen as having little more than historical value (though there is some current interest in extending term logics), regarded as made obsolete by the advent of propositional logic and the predicate calculus. Others use Aristotle in argumentation theory to help develop and critically question argumentation schemes that are used in artificial intelligence and legal arguments. Propositional logic (sentential logic) Main article: Propositional calculus

A propositional calculus or logic (also a sentential calculus) is a formal system in which formulae representing propositions can be formed by combining atomic propositions using logical connectives, and in which a system of formal proof rules allows certain formulae to be established as "theorems". Predicate logic Predicate logic is the generic term for symbolic formal systems such as first-order logic, second-order logic, many-sorted logic, and infinitary logic. Predicate logic provides an account of quantifiers general enough to express a wide set of arguments occurring in natural language. Aristotelian syllogistic logic specifies a small number of forms that the relevant part of the involved judgements may take. Predicate logic allows sentences to be analysed into subject and argument in several additional ways, thus allowing predicate logic to solve the problem of multiple generality that had perplexed medieval logicians. The development of predicate logic is usually attributed to Gottlob Frege, who is also credited as one of the founders of analytical philosophy, but the formulation of predicate logic most often used today is the first-order logic presented in Principles of Mathematical Logic by David Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann in 1928. The analytical generality of predicate logic allowed the formalisation of mathematics, drove the investigation of set theory, and allowed the development of Alfred Tarski's approach to model theory. It provides the foundation of modern mathematical logic. Frege's original system of predicate logic was second-order, rather than first-order. Second-order logic is most prominently defended (against the criticism of Willard Van Orman Quine and others) by George Boolos and Stewart Shapiro. Modal logic In languages, modality deals with the phenomenon that sub-parts of a sentence may have their semantics modified by special verbs or modal particles. For example, "We go to the games" can be modified to give "We should go to the games", and "We can go to the games"" and perhaps "We will go to the games". More abstractly, we might say that modality affects the circumstances in which we take an assertion to be satisfied. The logical study of modality dates back to Aristotle,[24] who was concerned with the alethic modalities of necessity and possibility, which he observed to be dual in the sense of De Morgan duality.[citation needed] While the study of necessity and possibility remained important to philosophers, little logical innovation happened until the landmark investigations of Clarence Irving Lewis in 1918, who formulated a family of rival axiomatizations of the alethic modalities. His work unleashed a torrent of new work on the topic, expanding the kinds of modality treated to include deontic logic and epistemic logic. The seminal work of Arthur Prior applied the same formal language to treat temporal logic and paved the way for the marriage of the two subjects. Saul Kripke discovered (contemporaneously with rivals) his theory of frame semantics which revolutionised the formal technology available to modal logicians and gave a new graph-theoretic way of looking at modality that has driven many applications in computational linguistics and computer science, such as dynamic logic. Informal reasoning The motivation for the study of logic in ancient times was clear: it is so that one may learn to distinguish good from bad arguments, and so become more effective in argument and oratory, and perhaps also to become a better person. Half of the works of Aristotle's Organon treat inference as it occurs in an informal setting, side by side with the development of the syllogistic, and in the Aristotelian school, these informal works on logic were seen as complementary to Aristotle's treatment of rhetoric. This ancient motivation is still alive, although it no longer takes centre stage in the picture of logic; typically dialectical logic will form the heart of a course in critical thinking, a compulsory course at many universities.

Argumentation theory is the study and research of informal logic, fallacies, and critical questions as they relate to every day and practical situations. Specific types of dialogue can be analyzed and questioned to reveal premises, conclusions, and fallacies. Argumentation theory is now applied in artificial intelligence and law. Mathematical logic Mathematical logic really refers to two distinct areas of research: the first is the application of the techniques of formal logic to mathematics and mathematical reasoning, and the second, in the other direction, the application of mathematical techniques to the representation and analysis of formal logic.
[25]

The earliest use of mathematics and geometry in relation to logic and philosophy goes back to the ancient Greeks such as Euclid, Plato, and Aristotle.[26] Many other ancient and medieval philosophers applied mathematical ideas and methods to their philosophical claims. Kurt Gdel

One of the boldest attempts to apply logic to mathematics was undoubtedly the logicism pioneered by philosopher-logicians such as Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell: the idea was that mathematical theories were logical tautologies, and the programme was to show this by means to a reduction of mathematics to logic.[9]The various attempts to carry this out met with a series of failures, from the crippling of Frege's project in his Grundgesetze by Russell's paradox, to the defeat ofHilbert's program by Gdel's incompleteness theorems. Both the statement of Hilbert's program and its refutation by Gdel depended upon their work establishing the second area of mathematical logic, the application of mathematics to logic in the form of proof theory.[28] Despite the negative nature of the incompleteness theorems, Gdel's completeness theorem, a result in model theory and another application of mathematics to logic, can be understood as showing how close logicism came to being true: every rigorously defined mathematical theory can be exactly captured by a first-order logical theory; Frege's proof calculus is enough to describe the whole of mathematics, though not equivalent to it. Thus we see how complementary the two areas of mathematical logic have been.[citation needed] If proof theory and model theory have been the foundation of mathematical logic, they have been but two of the four pillars of the subject. Set theory originated in the study of the infinite by Georg Cantor, and it has been the source of many of the most challenging and important issues in mathematical logic, from Cantor's theorem, through the status of the Axiom of Choice and the question of the independence of the continuum hypothesis, to the modern debate on large cardinalaxioms. Recursion theory captures the idea of computation in logical and arithmetic terms; its most classical achievements are the undecidability of the Entscheidungsproblem by Alan Turing, and his presentation of the Church-Turing thesis.[29] Today recursion theory is mostly concerned with the more refined problem of complexity classes when is a problem efficiently solvable? and the classification of degrees of unsolvability.[30] Philosophical logic Philosophical logic deals with formal descriptions of natural language. Most philosophers assume that the bulk of "normal" proper reasoning can be captured by logic, if one can find the right method for translating ordinary language into that logic. Philosophical logic is essentially a continuation of the traditional discipline that was called "Logic" before the invention of mathematical logic. Philosophical logic has a much greater concern with the connection between natural language and logic. As a result, philosophical logicians have contributed a great deal to the development of non-standard logics (e.g., free logics, tense logics) as well as various extensions of classical logic (e.g., modal logics), and non-standard semantics for such logics (e.g., Kripke's technique of supervaluations in the semantics of logic). Logic and the philosophy of language are closely related. Philosophy of language has to do with the study of how our language engages and interacts with our thinking. Logic has an immediate impact on other areas of study. Studying logic and the relationship between logic and ordinary speech can help a person better structure his own arguments and critique the arguments of others. Many popular arguments are filled with errors because so many people are untrained in logic and unaware of how to formulate an argument correctly. [edit]Computational Logic Main article: Logic in computer science

Logic cut to the heart of computer science as it emerged as a discipline: Alan Turing's work on the Entscheidungsproblem followed from Kurt Gdel's work on the incompleteness theorems, and the notion of general purpose computers that came from this work was of fundamental importance to the designers of the computer machinery in the 1940s. In the 1950s and 1960s, researchers predicted that when human knowledge could be expressed using logic with mathematical notation, it would be possible to create a machine that reasons, or artificial intelligence. This turned out to be more difficult than expected because of the complexity of human reasoning. In logic programming, a program consists of a set of axioms and rules. Logic programming systems such as Prolog compute the consequences of the axioms and rules in order to answer a query. Today, logic is extensively applied in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, and Computer Science, and these fields provide a rich source of problems in formal and informal logic. Argumentation theoryis one good example of how logic is being applied to artificial intelligence. The ACM Computing Classification System in particular regards:

Section F.3 on Logics and meanings of programs and F.4 on Mathematical logic and formal languages as part of the theory of computer science: this work covers formal semantics of programming languages, as well as work of formal methods such as Hoare logic Boolean logic as fundamental to computer hardware: particularly, the system's section B.2 on Arithmetic and logic structures, relating to operatives AND, NOT, and OR; Many fundamental logical formalisms are essential to section I.2 on artificial intelligence, for example modal logic and default logic in Knowledge representation formalisms and methods, Horn clauses in logic programming, and description logic.

Furthermore, computers can be used as tools for logicians. For example, in symbolic logic and mathematical logic, proofs by humans can be computerassisted. Using automated theorem proving the machines can find and check proofs, as well as work with proofs too lengthy to be written out by hand. [edit]Bivalence and the law of the excluded middle Main article: Principle of bivalence

The logics discussed above are all "bivalent" or "two-valued"; that is, they are most naturally understood as dividing propositions into true and false propositions. Non-classical logics are those systems which reject bivalence. Hegel developed his own dialectic logic that extended Kant's transcendental logic but also brought it back to ground by assuring us that "neither in heaven nor in earth, neither in the world of mind nor of nature, is there anywhere such an abstract 'eitheror' as the understanding maintains. Whatever exists is concrete, with difference and opposition in itself".[31] In 1910 Nicolai A. Vasiliev extended the law of excluded middle and the law of contradiction and proposed the law of excluded fourth and logic tolerant to contradiction.[32] In the early 20th centuryJan ukasiewicz investigated the extension of the traditional true/false values to include a third value, "possible", so inventing ternary logic, the first multi-valued logic.[citation needed] Logics such as fuzzy logic have since been devised with an infinite number of "degrees of truth", represented by a real number between 0 and 1.[33] Intuitionistic logic was proposed by L.E.J. Brouwer as the correct logic for reasoning about mathematics, based upon his rejection of the law of the excluded middle as part of his intuitionism. Brouwer rejected formalisation in mathematics, but his student Arend Heyting studied intuitionistic logic formally, as did Gerhard Gentzen. Intuitionistic logic has come to be of great interest to computer scientists, as it is a constructive logic and can be applied for extracting verified programs from proofs. Modal logic is not truth conditional, and so it has often been proposed as a non-classical logic. However, modal logic is normally formalised with the principle of the excluded middle, and itsrelational semantics is bivalent, so this inclusion is disputable. "Is logic empirical?" What is the epistemological status of the laws of logic? What sort of argument is appropriate for criticizing purported principles of logic? In an influential paper entitled "Is logic empirical?"[34] Hilary Putnam, building on a suggestion of W.V. Quine, argued that in general the facts of propositional logic have

a similar epistemological status as facts about the physical universe, for example as the laws of mechanics or of general relativity, and in particular that what physicists have learned about quantum mechanics provides a compelling case for abandoning certain familiar principles of classical logic: if we want to be realists about the physical phenomena described by quantum theory, then we should abandon the principle of distributivity, substituting for classical logic thequantum logic proposed by Garrett Birkhoff and John von Neumann.
[35]

Another paper by the same name by Sir Michael Dummett argues that Putnam's desire for realism mandates the law of distributivity.[36] Distributivity of logic is essential for the realist's understanding of how propositions are true of the world in just the same way as he has argued the principle of bivalence is. In this way, the question, "Is logic empirical?" can be seen to lead naturally into the fundamental controversy in metaphysics on realism versus anti-realism. Implication: strict or material? Main article: Paradox of entailment It is obvious that the notion of implication formalised in classical logic does not comfortably translate into natural language by means of "if then", due to a number of problems called theparadoxes of material implication. The first class of paradoxes involves counterfactuals, such as "If the moon is made of green cheese, then 2+2=5", which are puzzling because natural language does not support the principle of explosion. Eliminating this class of paradoxes was the reason for C. I. Lewis's formulation of strict implication, which eventually led to more radically revisionist logics such as relevance logic. The second class of paradoxes involves redundant premises, falsely suggesting that we know the succedent because of the antecedent: thus "if that man gets elected, granny will die" is materially true since granny is mortal, regardless of the man's election prospects. Such sentences violate the Gricean maxim of relevance, and can be modelled by logics that reject the principle of monotonicity of entailment, such as relevance logic. Tolerating the impossible Main article: Paraconsistent logic

Hegel was deeply critical of any simplified notion of the Law of Non-Contradiction. It was based on Leibniz's idea that this law of logic also requires a sufficient ground to specify from what point of view (or time) one says that something cannot contradict itself. A building, for example, both moves and does not move; the ground for the first is our solar system and for the second the earth. In Hegelian dialectic, the law of non-contradiction, of identity, itself relies upon difference and so is not independently assertable. Closely related to questions arising from the paradoxes of implication comes the suggestion that logic ought to tolerate inconsistency. Relevance logic and paraconsistent logic are the most important approaches here, though the concerns are different: a key consequence of classical logic and some of its rivals, such as intuitionistic logic, is that they respect the principle of explosion, which means that the logic collapses if it is capable of deriving a contradiction. Graham Priest, the main proponent of dialetheism, has argued for paraconsistency on the grounds that there are in fact, true contradictions. Rejection of logical truth The philosophical vein of various kinds of skepticism contains many kinds of doubt and rejection of the various bases upon which logic rests, such as the idea of logical form, correct inference, or meaning, typically leading to the conclusion that there are no logical truths. Observe that this is opposite to the usual views in philosophical skepticism, where logic directs skeptical enquiry to doubt received wisdoms, as in the work of Sextus Empiricus. Friedrich Nietzsche provides a strong example of the rejection of the usual basis of logic: his radical rejection of idealisation led him to reject truth as a "mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphismsin short ... metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power; coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins".[38] His rejection of truth did not lead him to reject the idea of either inference or logic completely, but rather suggested that "logic [came] into existence in man's head [out] of illogic, whose realm originally must have been immense. Innumerable beings who made inferences in a way different from ours perished".[39] Thus there is the idea that logical inference has a use as

a tool for human survival, but that its existence does not support the existence of truth, nor does it have a reality beyond the instrumental: "Logic, too, also rests on assumptions that do not correspond to anything in the real world".
[40]

This position held by Nietzsche however, has come under extreme scrutiny for several reasons. He fails to demonstrate the validity of his claims and merely asserts them rhetorically. Furthermore, his position has been claimed to be self-refuting by philosophers, such as Jrgen Habermas, who have accused Nietszche of not even having a coherent perspective let alone a theory of knowledge.[41] George Lukacs in his book The Destruction of Reason has asserted that "Were we to study Nietzsches statements in this area from a logico-philosophical angle, we would be confronted by a dizzy chaos of the most lurid assertions, arbitrary and violently incompatible".
[42]

Extreme skepticism such as that displayed by Nietzsche has not been met

with much seriousness by analytic philosophers in the 20th century. Bertrand Russell famously referred to Nietzsche's claims as "empty words" in his book A History of Western Philosophy.[43] The Collins English Dictionary, describes philosophy as - "the academic discipline concerned with making explicit the nature and significance of ordinary and scientific beliefs and investigating the intelligibility of concepts by means of rational argument concerning their presuppositions, implications, and interrelationships; in particular, the rational investigation of the nature and structure of reality (metaphysics), the resources and limits of knowledge (epistemology), the principles and import of moral judgment (ethics), and the relationship between language and reality (semantics)." Thus, philosophy is a critical study that uses reason and rationality to come up with solutions for better understanding of the basic problems of life and related issues such as knowledge, morals, rationality itself and language among other things. The above definition clearly indicates that there are four root divisions of philosophy to which the other branches are related. Various Branches of Philosophy Metaphysics: Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that goes beyond the realms of science. It is concerned with answering the questions about identity and the world. The name is derived from the Greek words, Meta which means beyond or after, and Physika which means physics. Aristotle, one of the most well-known philosophers, acknowledged Thales as the first known meta physician. The main branches of metaphysics are ontology, natural theology and universal science. Epistemology: It deals with the definition of knowledge and its scope and limitations. It translates from Greek to mean 'theory of knowledge'. It questions the meaning of knowledge, how we obtain knowledge, how much do we know and how do we have this knowledge? Some of the famous epistemologists are Descartes, Kant and Hume. Aesthetics: Aesthetics deals with sense, perception and appreciation of beauty. It broadly includes everything to do with appreciating of art, culture and nature. It also examines how the perception of beauty is determined by taste and aesthetic judgment. The practice of defining, criticizing and appreciating art and art forms is based on aesthetics. Ethics: It is concerned with questions on morality and values and how they apply to various situations. It can be divided into the branches of metaethics, normative and applied ethics. Ethics seeks to understand the basis of morals, how they develop and how they are and should be followed. Famous works on ethics are by philosophers as early as Plato, Aristotle, Kant and Nietzsche. Logic: Among the branches of philosophy, logic is concerned with the various forms of reasoning and arriving at genuine conclusions. It includes the system of statements and arguments. It is now divided into mathematical logic and philosophical logic. It tries to avoid the imaginary or assumptions without real logical proof. Political Philosophy: It is concerned with all the things to do with government and the relationships and obligations of people in a state and their communities. It also includes things like citizens' rights, laws, and justice systems. Plato, Hobbes, Locke and J.S. Mill have defining works in this area. Philosophy of Mind: It is, as the name suggests, that tries to understand and explain everything that there is to do with the mind. It is divided into two major schools of thought, namely dualism which states that the mind and body are two distinct entities and monism, which states that the mind and body are not distinct. It has inspired work in many modern-day sciences including computer science, neurosciences and evolutionary biology. It has helped research on the topics of artificial intelligence and understanding the human brain and how it affects us. Philosophy of Language: It includes study on topics such as how language originated, its nature and usage. Here, philosophers first try to understand the nature of language, secondly, how it helps in communication, thirdly how it relates to the minds of the people communicating and how it relates to the truth in the world and how it affects our thoughts. Prominent philosophers in this category are Plato, Wittgenstein and Locke. Philosophy of Education: It deals with the study of education and ways in which it can be improved. It tries to find the best ways to impart instruction. It tries to understand and explain the nature and need of education, methods in which it can be done, and what its ideals should be. The philosophy of education overlaps in the area of study of both, the various branches of philosophy and of education. This has been a topic of interest for philosophers the world over, and still generates a lot of debate and interest. Philosophy of Religion: This branch is associated with religion and God. It tries to understand and rationalize, the relations between value systems and the entity of God among other things. It is designed to be different from religious philosophy so that it is not biased by certain faiths and beliefs, but looks at religion as a whole. There are a lot of other different divisions of philosophy according to the subject including, philosophy of science, mathematics, law, history,

psychology and anthropology. It is a widely studied subject and philosophers from different parts of the world, have come up with their own unique ideas and theories. It can thus be further divided into the western and eastern schools of philosophy. This subject has deeply affected our way of life and modern culture and values, our government systems and even technology. Philosophy as a subject will continue to exist as long as man continues to think and ask questions.

Aesthetics This is the study of beauty and taste, whether in the form of the comic, the tragic, or the sublime. The word comes from the Greek aisthetikos, "of sense perception." Aesthetics has traditionally been part of other philosophical fields like epistemology or ethics but it started to come into its own and become a more independent field under Immanuel Kant. Epistemology Epistemology is the study of the grounds and nature of knowledge itself. Epistemological studies usually focus upon our means for acquiring knowledge; thus modern epistemology generally involves a debate between rationalism and empiricism, or the question of whether knowledge can be acquired a priori or a posteriori. Ethics Ethics is the formal study of moral standards and conduct and is also often called "moral philosophy." What is good? What is evil? How should I behave - and why? How should I balance my needs against the needs of others? These are some of the questions asked in the field of ethics. Logic and the Philosophy of Language These two fields are often treated separately, but they are close enough that they are presented together here. Logic is the study of methods of reasoning and argumentation, both proper and improper. The Philosophy of Language involves the study of how our language interacts with our thinking. Metaphysics In Western philosophy this field has become the study of the fundamental nature of all reality - what is it, why is it, and how are we to understand it. Some only regard metaphysics as the study of "higher" reality or the "invisible" nature behind everything, but that isn't actually true. It is, instead, the study of all of reality, visible and invisible. Philosophy of Education This field deals with how children should be educated, what they should be educated in, and what the ultimate purpose of education should be for society. This is an often neglected field of philosophy and is often addressed only be in educational programs designed to train teachers - in that context, it is a part of pedagogy, which is learning how to teach. Philosophy of History The Philosophy of History is a relatively minor branch in the field of philosophy, focusing on the study of history, writing about history, how history progresses, and what impact history has upon the present day. This is can be referred to as the Critical, Analytical, or Formal Philosophy of History, as well as the Philosophy of Historiography. Philosophy of Mind The relatively recent specialty known as Philosophy of Mind deals with the consciousness and how it interacts with the body and the outside world. It asks not only what mental phenomena are and what gives rise to them, but also what relationship they have to the larger physical body and the world around us. Philosophy of Religion Sometimes confused with theology, the Philosophy of Religion is the philosophical study of religious beliefs, religious doctrines, religious arguments and religious history. The line between theology and the philosophy of religion isn't always sharp because they share so much in common, but the primary difference is that theology tends to be apologetical in nature, committed to the defense of particular religious positions, whereas Philosophy of Religion is committed to the investigation of religion itself rather than the truth of any particular religion. Philosophy of Science This is concerned with how science operates, what the goals of science should be, what relationship science should have with society, the differences between science and other activities, etc. Everything that happens in science has some relationship with the Philosophy of Science and is predicated upon some philosophical position, even though that may be rarely evident. Political and Legal Philosophy These two fields are often studied separately, but they are presented here jointly because they both come back to the same thing: the study of force. Politics is the study of political force in the general community while jurisprudence is the study of how laws can and should be used to achieve political and social goals.

Logic is important because it delimits a class of problems which can reliably be solved by computers, and which therefore can be handed over to the global network for solution without human checking of the results or comprehension of the methods. It is a large class of problems, since it encompasses all mathematical problems, and also superficially non-logical problems in the fields of engineering and science, once necessary modelling assumptions are made explicit. It is a class which computer networks could be trusted to solve. HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY INTRODUCTION THE History of Philosophy is the exposition of philosophical opinions and of systems and schools of philosophy. It includes the study of the lives of philosophers, the inquiry into the mutual connection of schools and systems of thought, and the attempt to trace the course of philosophical progress or retrogression. The nature and scope of philosophy furnish reasons for the study of its history. Philosophy does not confine its investigation to one or to several departments of knowledge; it is concerned with the ultimate principles and laws of all things. Every science has for its aim to find the causes of phenomena; philosophy seeks to discover ultimate causes, thus carrying to a higher plane the unifying process begun in the lower sciences. The vastness of the field of inquiry, the difficulty of synthesizing the results of scientific investigation, and the constantly increasing complexity of these results necessitated the gradual development of philosophy. To each generation and to each individual the problems of philosophy present themselves anew, and the influences, personal, racial, climatic, social, and religious, which bear on the generation or on the individual must be studied in order that the meaning and value of each doctrine and system be understood and appreciated. Such influences are more than a matter of mere erudition; they have their place in the praenotanda to the solution of every important question in philosophy; for, as Coleridge says, "the very fact that any doctrine has been believed by thoughtful men is part of the problem to be solved, is one of the phenomena to be accounted for." Moreover, philosophical doctrines, while they are to be regarded primarily as contributions to truth, are also to be studied as vital forces which have determined to a large extent the literary, artistic, political, and industrial life of the world. To-day, more than ever, it is clearly understood that without a knowledge of these forces it is impossible to comprehend the inner movements of thought which alone explain the outer actions of men and nations. The dangers to be avoided in the study of the history of philosophy are Eclecticism, which teaches that all systems are equally true, and Scepticism, which teaches that all systems are equally false. A careful study of the course of philosophical speculation will result in the conviction that, while no single school can lay claim to the entire truth, certain schools of thought have adopted that world-concept which can be most consistently applied to every department of knowledge. False systems of philosophy may stumble on many important truths, but a right concept of the ultimate meaning of reality and a correct notion of philosophic method are the essentials for which we must look in every system; these constitute a legitimate standard of valuation by which the student of the history of philosophy may judge each successive contribution to philosophical science. The method to be followed in this study is the empirical, or a posteriori, method, which is employed in all historical research. The speculative, or a priori, method consists in laying down a principle, such as the Hegelian principle that the succession of schools and systems corresponds to the succession of logical categories, and deducing from such a principle the actual succession of schools and systems. But, apart from the danger of misstating facts for the sake of methodic symmetry, such a procedure must be judged to be philosophically unsound; for systems of philosophy, like facts of general history, are contingent events. There are, indeed, laws of historical development; but such laws are to be established subsequently, not anteriorly, to the study of the facts of history. The historian of philosophy, therefore, has for his task: (1) To set forth the lives and doctrines of philosophers and systems and schools of philosophy in their historical relation. This, the recitative or narrative portion of the historian's task, includes the critical examination of sources. (2) To trace the genetic connection between systems, schools, and doctrines, and to estimate the value of each successive contribution to philosophy. This, thephilosophical portion of the historian's task, is by far the most important of his duties: Potius de rebus ipsis judicare debemus, quam pro magno de hominibus quid quisque senserit scire.{1} The sources of the history of philosophy are: (1) Primary sources, namely, the works, complete or fragmentary, of philosophers. It is part of the historian's task to establish, whenever necessary, the authenticity andintegrity of these works. (2) Secondary sources, that is, the narration or testimony of other persons concerning the lives, opinions, and doctrines of philosophers. In dealing with secondary sources the rules of historical criticism must be applied, in order to determine the reliability of witnesses.

The role of the school library and information programs and services is to:

Facilitate the planning and implementation of learning programs that will equip students with the skills necessary to succeed in a constantly changing social and economic environment. Through resource-based programs, students acquire skills to collect, critically analyse and organise information, problem-solve and communicate their understandings. Provide and promotes quality fiction to develop and sustain in students the habit and enjoyment of reading for pleasure and to enrich students' intellectual, aesthetic, cultural and emotional growth. Cater for differences in learning and teaching styles through the provision of and equality of access to, a wide range of materials, fiction and non-fiction, print, audio, video and digital. Provide teachers with access to relevant curriculum information and professional development materials within and outside the school; and opportunities to cooperatively plan implement and evaluate learning programs which integrate information resources and technologies.

A school library (or a school library media center) is a library within a school where students, staff, and often, parents of a public (state) or private (fee paying) school have access to a variety of resources. The goal of the school library media center is to ensure that all members of the school

community have equitable access "to books and reading, to information, and to information technology." of media... is automated, and utilizes the Internet [as well as books] for information gathering."
[2]

[1]

A school library media center "uses all types

School libraries are distinct from public libraries

because they serve as "learner-oriented laboratories which support, extend, and individualize the school's curriculum... A school library serves as the center and coordinating agency for all material used in the school."
[3]

Researchers have demonstrated that school libraries have a positive impact on student achievement. More than 60 studies have been conducted in 19 U.S. states and one Canadian province. The major finding of these studies is that students with access to a well-supported school library media program with a qualified school library media specialist, scored higher on reading assessments regardless of their socio-economic statuses. In addition, a study conducted in Ohio
[4]

revealed that 99.4% of students surveyed believed that their school librarians and school library media programs

helped them succeed in school. A report that reported similar conclusions was compiled by Michele Lonsdale in Australia in 2003.[5] [edit]History of school libraries

The later part of the 19th century marked the beginning of the modern American library movement with the creation of the American Library Association (ALA) in 1876 by a group of librarians led by Melvil Dewey. At these beginning stages of development, the school libraries were primarily made up of small collections with the school librarian playing primarily a clerical role. 1920 marked the first effort by the library and education communities to evaluate school libraries with the publication of the Certain Report,[6] which provided the first yardstick for evaluating school libraries. School libraries experienced another major push following the launch of Sputnik in 1957, which forced the United States to re-evaluate its priorities for math and science education. As a result, the 1960s were one of the greatest periods of growth and development for school libraries due to an increased flow of money and support from the private sector and public funding for education. Most notable during this time was the Knapp School Libraries Project[7] which established model school library media centers across the country. Hundreds of new school libraries were expanded and renovated during this time. Most recently, school libraries have been defined by three major guidelines documents: Information Power (1988)[8] and Information Power II (1998).[9] Globally important mission statement is theUnesco School library Manifesto [1]. [edit]The purpose of the school library

Inside a school library.

School library media centers in the 21st century can, and should be, hubs for increased student achievement and positive focused school reform-Kathleen D. Smith [10] The school library exists to provide a range of learning opportunities for both large and small groups as well as individuals with a focus on intellectual content, information literacy, and the learner.[11] In addition to classroom visits with collaborating teachers, the school library also serves as a place for students to do independent work, use computers, equipment and research materials; to host special events such as author visits and book clubs; and for tutoring and testing. The school library media center program is a collaborative venture in which school library media specialists, teachers, and administrators work together to provide opportunities for the social, cultural, and educational growth of students. Activities that are part of the school library media program can take place in the school library media center, the laboratory classroom, through the school, and via the school library's online resources.[12] [edit]The school library collection

School libraries are similar to public libraries in that they contain books, films, recorded sound, periodicals, realia, and digital media. These items are not only for the education, enjoyment, and entertainment of the all members of the school community, but also to enhance and expand the school's curriculum.

[edit]Staffing of the school library

In many schools, school libraries are staffed by librarians, teacher-librarians, or school library media specialists who hold a specific library science degree. In some jurisdictions, school librarians are required to have specific certification and/or a teaching certificate.[13] The school librarian performs four leadership main roles: teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, and program administrator. In the teacher role, the school librarian develops and implements curricula relating to information literacy and inquiry. School librarians may read to children, assist them in selecting books, and assist with schoolwork. Some school librarians see classes on a "flexible schedule". A flexible schedule means that rather than having students come to the library for instruction at a fixed time every week, the classroom teacher schedules library time when library skills or materials are needed as part of the classroom learning experience. In the instructional partner role, school librarians collaborate with classroom teachers to create independent learners by fostering students' research, information literacy, technology, and critical thinking skills. As information specialists, school librarians develop a resource base for the school by using the curriculum and student interests to identify and obtain library materials, organize and maintain the library collection in order to promote independent reading and lifelong learning. Materials in the library collection can be located using an Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) This role also encompasses many activities relating to technology including the integration of resources in a variety of formats: periodical databases; Web sites; digital video segments; podcasts; blog and wiki content; digital images; virtual classrooms, etc. School librarians are often responsible for audio-visual equipment and are sometimes in charge of school computers and computer networks. Many school librarians also perform clerical duties. They handle the circulating and cataloging of materials, facilitate interlibrary loans, shelve materials, perform inventory, etc. They are a big source of research for pupils and teachers. It is important for pupils to read because they will need to be able to read in their future. When pupils read it is increasing their vocabulary. Usually school libraries have computers, so they could use the computer for information. School libraries are useful for teachers to store pupils grades, targets and work on the computers. Teachers can make slideshows and games to make lessons more fun and interesting. Teachers can make tests on computers in the library. It gives a good place to go if you want quite, because in the library their wont be as much noise as in the playground. If a pupil wanted to do their homework during there break time then they could go there, where it's nice and quite with no one talking to them. If a pupil doesn't have a computer or printer they could go to the school library. In school libraries they can ask the ladies at the desk questions if they were stuck with a question. It offers a place for out of school clubs for example, homework club. If a pupil don't have that many books at home, they could go to the school library and take a book out. Or maybe they don't have a library near where they live so they can use the school library. Pupils that are about to leave high school can use the computers in the libraries to help them research for jobs. If people looked for everything on the internet then their would be no use of a book, so it's good to have a library because that way people are still looking things up from a book and not a computer. On the internet you can't be to sure if what your reading is true but in a non-fiction book it's more reliable than the internet. We hope that libraries will always exist as places for learners to find information, resources, services, and instruction. But formats, technologies, learning needs, and our schools are evolving. And so are students themselves. Our entire information and communication landscapes have shifted and this shift will only continue. Valenza &Johnston (October 2009) School Library Journal.

Introduction to the school library The school library is central to learning and plays a key role as a place for encouraging innovation, curiosity, and problem solving. Your library is a catalyst for literacy and reading and for teaching and scaffolding inquiry learning. School libraries make a difference to students understanding and achievement and provide support for teaching and learning throughout the school. The school library is an important part of the school community and reflects and welcomes this community. Your school library plays a key role in the cultural and social life of the school. It can be a central point for engagement with all kinds of reading, cultural activities, access to information, knowledge building, deep thinking and lively discussion. School Library role The vision, principles and management of your school library can be recorded in your school library management statement. This document reflects your schools vision for learning and underpins your librarys services, and organisation.

Learning and teaching. The school library provides a model for inquiry learning and building knowledge and confidence in seeking and processing information. The school library is pivotal to developing 21st century learners. There is a large and growing body of evidence showing the impact of the school library on student achievement. It is a fundamental resource for supporting students learning, and a key support for teaching staff. Your school library reflects and encourages collaborative learning and sharing of ideas. Literacy and reading. School libraries are places for learning and thinking, and play a key role in supporting and developing enjoyment of reading and multiple literacies. A sanctuary, a mine of treasure, a house of maps to secret lives in secret worlds - the library became my other home. Joy Cowley. There is a Pedagogy of the Library which informs and guides the services of New Zealand School Libraries. This document based on current and future focused thinking reflects libraries that engage and support all learners. Welcome Message from the Librarian of Congress The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library's mission is to support the Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties and to further the progress of knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the American people.

As Librarian of Congress, I oversee the many thousands of dedicated staff who acquire, catalog, preserve, and make available library collections within our three buildings on Capitol Hill and over the Internet. I am pleased that you are visiting our Web site today, and I invite you return to it often.

Sincerely, James H. Billington Librarian of Congress Residential Scholars Center The Library's presence on Capitol Hill will be enhanced by the scheduled renovation of the Special Facilities Center located at 601 East Capitol Street, S. E., acquired in 1991 by the Architect of the Capitol for the Library's use to provide short -term housing for researchers using the Library's collections or engaged in Library programs.

The planned Residential Scholars Center will make it possible for a new cadre of scholars, young researchers, junior fellows, and K-12 teachers to come to the Library to use our collections or to participate in institutes and fellowship programs. The Library is grateful to all of the private donors who contributed to the Library's fundraising campaign, particularly members of the Library's James Madison Council, for making the renovation a reality after so many years. Library Organization An agency of the legislative branch of the U.S. government, the Library of Congress encompasses several integral service and support units, listed below. You may also download a PDF of the Library's organizational chart (PDF, 815 KB). Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view this document. Office of the Librarian The mission of the Office of the Librarian is to set policy and to direct and support programs and activities to accomplish the Library's mission. The Office of the Librarian is the administrative branch of the Library of Congress and has overall management responsibility for the Library. Congressional Research Service CRS serves the Congress throughout the legislative process by providing comprehensive and reliable legislative research and analysis that are timely, objective, authoritative, and confidential, thereby contributing to an informed national legislature. Copyright Office The mission of the Copyright Office is to promote creativity by administering and sustaining an effective national copyright system. Law Library

Congress established its Law Library in 1832, recognizing its need for ready access to reliable legal materials. The Law Library has grown over the years to become the worlds largest law library, with a collection of over three million volumes spanning the ages and covering virtually every jurisdiction in the world. Library Services The mission of Library Services is to develop qualitatively the Library's universal collections, which document the history and further the creativity of the American people and which record and contribute to the advancement of civilization and knowledge throughout the world, and to acquire, organize, provide access to, maintain, secure, and preserve these collections. Office of Strategic Initiatives The mission of the Office of Strategic Initiatives is to support the Library's vision and strategy by directing the overall digital strategic planning for the Library and the national program for long-term preservation of digital cultural assets, leading a collaborative institution-wide effort to develop consolidated digital future plans, and integrating the delivery of information technology services. Office of Support Operations Several offices that provide essential services to all service and support units within the Library make up this unit. These include Integrated Support Services, Human Resources Services and the Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness. Other Offices Other offices that operate independently of individual service units but are within the Library's organizational structure are listed here.

Copyright Royalty Board Office of the Inspector General Open World Leadership Center How to do well in college algebra?1 Take the math placement test at your school before the semester starts. The placement test helps you decide whether or not an algebra class is right for you. Maybe you don't need algebra, or maybe you need to take a different math class to prepare you for algebra. Usually, a placement test is free and comes with an appointment with the academic counselor; they will be able to tell you about your specific situation.2

Sign up for the class. For an algebra class, a local community college is your best bet. Most likely, a community college will have many sections that meet at a variety of times. It may also have a math lab or study center.3

Buy the books and supplies a month before class. Give yourself a head start. All math classes require work! Complete as much of the book as possible before classes start.

Especially at the College level, but even in grade school, a math teacher can only guide you. You must do the work! By getting ahead in your College Algebra (or any other math) studies you will have already worked through your problems by test time; you will also have intelligent questions to ask your teacher about the work.

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If your bookstore stocks them, buy a copy of the student solution manual. This will make your homework sessions much easier.

Write down all class times, study sessions, quizzes, exams, and project due dates in your planner. This helps you keep track of when everything is due and helps you make academics a priority. Pay special attention to exam study sessions and exams that fall outside of your normal schedule and/or class location.5

Go to all of the classes, even the optional ones. If you don't go to class, it's much harder to learn on your own. Unlike in a literature class, math is cumulative; if you don't know the foundation, it's difficult to grasp later concepts.

Take notes in class. Write down or draw everything your professor presents on the board as well as any verbal hints they give. Write or draw everything the exact same way the professor writes or draws it on the board. This will help you study your notes later.

Do the homework. Do as much of the homework as possible, even if it is not collected or graded. Homework is practice for exams. When you do your homework, you study for the test at the same time. Reading your notes may help you pass a social science class, but it is not enough to help you pass algebra.8

Check the homework when you are done. If you have the student solution's manual, you can see how to do each problem step by step. If you do not have a student solutions manual, your book will have the answers at the back of the book. Make sure you get the problems right before moving on to the next section so you won't be enforcing bad habits. It's much harder to unlearn an old habit than it is to learn a new habit.9

Ask questions on the homework. Write a list of problems that you want answered and take it to class; this way, you will not miss a question. Make sure you give the questions a good try first; you may be able to solve them yourself. If your professor doesn't answer all of your questions, ask at the math lab.10

Learn to use the technology. Your math professor may show your class how to use a specific calculator or computer program. Learn the program or instrument inside out. If you have been out of school for even a few years since your last math class, make sure you brush up on your technology skill; technology changes very quickly.11

Use graph paper for graphs. Understanding how to represent functions of a graph is key to understanding algebra. With graph paper, you can learn important graphing and visualization skills. These skills will help you in algebra and any higher math class.

Pay special attention during demonstrations. Some algebra concepts are best when demonstrated. It is hard to use words to describe how a circle, an ellipse, aparabola and a hyperbola can come from the same cone, but when the professor takes out a model and shows you how to "cut" the cone, conic sections are much easier to understand.

Ace the quizzes. Not only do the quizzes count for a grade, but they are also practice for the final exam. When you get your quiz back, check to see what you did wrong. Do the problems again for practice and make sure you don't make the same mistakes again. A good quiz average may also help you pass if your test grades are on the pass/fail fence.14

Pass the exams. If you've done the above steps, this part should be easy. You've had hours of practice from the homework, you've aced the quizzes and you know how to use the technology. Now go to the exam and show how good you are.