Fārābī and Avicenna on Contraposition. Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fallahi, Asadollah
• Is Part Of: History and philosophy of logic. Volume 40:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 22
• Page End: 41
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: Logic -- Periodicals; 160.905
• DOI: 10.1080/01445340.2018.1483689
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0144-5340

Abstract

Abstract : The rule of contraposition has been investigated thoroughly by Arabic logicians. In this paper, we study the work done by Fārābā and Avicenna, the fathers of Arabic logic. Fārābā studied contraposition of universal affirmatives, discussed its four forms, and discovered a relation between one form and the conversion of negative universals. Although Fārābā and logicians before him have used contraposition only for conditionals, as well as for indefinite and universal affirmative categorical propositions, Avicenna generalized the rule to all the four Aristotelian quantified categorical propositions. However, many of his ideas on contraposition were opposed by his 12th and 13th century followers, which are to be investigated later.