J.M. Bochenski – författare

The work of which this is an English translation appeared originally in French as Precis de logique mathematique. In 1954 Dr. Albert Menne brought out a revised and somewhat enlarged edition in German (Grund­ riss der Logistik, F. Schoningh, Paderborn). In making my translation I have used both editions. For the most part I have followed the original French edition, since I thought there was some advantage in keeping the work as short as possible. However, I have included the more extensive historical notes of Dr. Menne, his bibliography, and the two sections on modal logic and the syntactical categories (§ 25 and 27), which were not in the original. I have endeavored to correct the typo­ graphical errors that appeared in the original editions and have made a few additions to the bibliography. In making the translation I have profited more than words can tell from the ever-generous help of Fr. Bochenski while he was teaching at the University of Notre Dame during 1955-56. OTTO BIRD Notre Dame, 1959 I GENERAL PRINCIPLES § O. INTRODUCTION 0. 1. Notion and history. Mathematical logic, also called 'logistic', ·symbolic logic', the 'algebra of logic', and, more recently, simply 'formal logic', is the set of logical theories elaborated in the course of the last century with the aid of an artificial notation and a rigorously deductive method.

The work of which this is an English translation appeared originally in French as Precis de logique mathematique. In 1954 Dr. Albert Menne brought out a revised and somewhat enlarged edition in German (Grund­ riss der Logistik, F. Schoningh, Paderborn). In making my translation I have used both editions. For the most part I have followed the original French edition, since I thought there was some advantage in keeping the work as short as possible. However, I have included the more extensive historical notes of Dr. Menne, his bibliography, and the two sections on modal logic and the syntactical categories (§ 25 and 27), which were not in the original. I have endeavored to correct the typo­ graphical errors that appeared in the original editions and have made a few additions to the bibliography. In making the translation I have profited more than words can tell from the ever-generous help of Fr. Bochenski while he was teaching at the University of Notre Dame during 1955-56. OTTO BIRD Notre Dame, 1959 I GENERAL PRINCIPLES § O. INTRODUCTION 0. 1. Notion and history. Mathematical logic, also called 'logistic', ·symbolic logic', the 'algebra of logic', and, more recently, simply 'formal logic', is the set of logical theories elaborated in the course of the last century with the aid of an artificial notation and a rigorously deductive method.

Early in 1958 a number of research projects on Soviet philosophy were started at the Institute of East-European Studies at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) under the direction of the undersigned. At present, they are all completed or nearly so and their results are described in 18 different volumes. In spite of the fact that all of them have been already published or soon will be (mostly in German), it has been thought worthwhile to present their main conclusions in the form of short English reports. This book contains in the main these reports. Only the two programmatic papers (my own and that of Dr. Buchholz) and the study of Dr. Dahm are not direct results of the above-mentioned projects. But it will be clear to everyone that they, too, are closely connected with the subject envisaged and are written from a similar point of view. It will, perhaps, be convenient to briefly formulate this standpoint. All the writings included here are concerned with recent (i. e. mainly post­ Stalinist) developments in Soviet philosophy, where "Soviet" is taken in the wide meaning of the word, covering also Marxism-Leninism in Communist countries other than the Soviet Union. All the authors started with the assumption that there are interesting aspects to these more recent developments. There was also a common assumption that only specialized work on first-hand sources can be of relevance in this field.

Professor Bochenski, as he himself points out in the prologue, is a logician; he is best known in England and the United States for his work in the history of logic, and more recently in Soviet and East European philosophy. But he has taught philosophy for many years - in Rome, in Switzerland, and on a number of visits to the United States - and in this book provides an elementary introduction to contemporary work in the field. As a means to this end he has chosen to deal with four alternative methods employed by philosophers in the twentieth century. Philosophical methodology has not attracted much attention, in English­ speaking circles, as a distinct branch of the discipline of philosophy; the term "methodologist", if used at all, would ordinarily be taken to refer to somebody concerned with scientific rather than philosophical method. When, therefore, Professor Bochenski refers, as he frequently does, to "contemporary methodologists", meaning people who debate the re­ spective merits of phenomenology and mathematical logic as ways of approaching the world, the phrase has an odd ring. But philosophical methodology really makes a great deal more sense than scientific method­ ology. In science methodology is almost superfluous; given all the avail­ able information and a reasonably clear idea of what is wanted, there is usually not much ambiguity as to the means of getting it, or not much that could be resolved by mere argument.

The present volume of "Sovietica" offers a short synopsis of the newest version of Soviet philosophic dogma. It is a presentation of the content of the Osnovy marksistskoj filosofii which was authorized for publi- cation Aug. 7, 1958, and appeared before the end of October of that year in a printing of 250 000 copies. The book was published by the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the Su. The responsible editors were P. Pavelkin and G. Kurbatova and the text was prepared by eleven eminent Soviet philosophers (Y. F. Berestnev, M. A. Dynnik, P. N. Fedoseev, Ju. P. Francev, G. E. Glezerman, M. D. Kammari, F. V. Konstantinov, P. V. Kopnin, I. V. Kuznecov, M. M. Rozental', A. F. Siskin) under the direction of Konstantinov. As stated in the preface (p. 5) of the book, it was read in manuscript form by numerous scholars and professors of philosophy and then thoroughly discussed in three separate sessions (in the Academy of Sciences, and the Universities of Leningrad and Moscow). This work presents a reliable account of Soviet dogma as of 1958, i.e.