Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/428

 VI. NEW BOOKS. An Introductory Logic. By JAMES EDWIN CREIGHTON, Sage Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in Cornell University. New York : The Macmillan Co. London: Macmillan & Co., 1898. Pp. xiv., 392. THIS work is intended as a text-book for college students and grew out of the author's lectures in Cornell University. It is arranged in three parts, preceded by an introduction treating of the general standpoint of Logic, and of its history. The historical sketch, especially as regards the Greeks, seems too trite and general to be of definite service to the student. A more pointed account either of early Greek thought or of Aristotle would surely have filled the space more usefully. The three parts, which form the body of the work, deal respectively with the Syllogism, with Induction, and with " The Nature of Thought ". Under the two earlier heads a full account is given of the traditional formal logic of the syllogism, complete with Euler's circles and mnemonic lines ; and of what may now perhaps be called the traditional formal logic of induction, including Mill's " Methods," Analogy, Hypothesis, and a chapter on the " Fallacies of Inductive Reasoning ". Part iii., under the heading " Nature of Thought," is intended to introduce the student to the philosophy of Logic as treated by Bradley, Sigwart and their followers. So that here the field is retraversed, and the distinctions which had been provisionally accepted are reanalysed from the stand- point of identity in difference and of the ultimate unity of knowledge. The author in his preface defends this attempt to bring the philosophy of Logic before students in an elementary course ; and one's view of its advisability will probably determine one's attitude to his work. He points out, what seems worth considering, that psychology has ceased to be a "philosophy of mind," and that thus a fresh demand seems to be made upon Logic for the investigation of intelligence as cognitive. Ulti- mately, the elements which here find themselves between the same covers will hardly form an organic whole. But so long as it cannot be said that philosophical Logic has provided itself with a teachable body of doctrine, it may be well to lay before the student, as is here done, the sort of tradition which he might have gathered from Jevons and Bain, together with indications of the points at which it seems to break down. Prof. Creighton writes sensibly and temperately, and introduces, by cautions and anticipations in the body of his work, the greatest amount of unity which is compatible with his plan. It is not quite a happy family, however, in which we find Mr. Bradley's " A to the right of B," etc., introduced under the heading of " Irregular Arguments," along with Enthymeme, Sorites and the like. And there is an awkward discrepancy in the use of the term opposites on page 52 for contraries, and on page 72 for contradictories. There are other cases of laxity of terminology, such as the use of Definition as a class name covering Division. If we are to teach the old Logic, should we not be very precise with it ? B. BOSANQUET.