Logic (Sigwart)/Volume 1/Preface to first edition

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO FIRST GERMAN EDITION
following attempt to reconstruct logic from the point of view of methodology, thus bringing it into active relations with the scientific problems of the present day, must be justified by the success with which it is carried out; this first volume contains the preliminary and fundamental parts of the doctrine, and in them I have adhered as closely as possible to the traditional form of the science. I would only ask that the small extent to which I have referred to previous and contemporary treatments of the subject as a whole, or to particular views on special points, may not be taken amiss. In a science which has been so much discussed it seemed to me that to commend or dispute even the most important previous doctrines would be an undue extension of the work; and I further feared lest the course of investigation and exposition prescribed by my view of the subject would be confused if I made a rule of discussing at every point opinions which are to a large extent based upon presuppositions quite different from my own. I have therefore thought it right to confine myself to what was indispensable for the correct representation and justification of my own doctrine. I need hardly say that I have made extensive use of both ancient and modern authors. Three of the men whose works have been most frequently before me, and to whom I hoped here to express my obligation—Trendelenburg, Ueberweg and Mill—have died while the book was being planned and carried out; I must also make special mention of the assistance I have received from Prantl’s great work.


 * July, 1873.