formal logic

noun
1.
the branch of logic concerned exclusively with the principles of deductive reasoning and with the form rather than the content of propositions.
Origin
1855-60
Examples from the web for formal logic
  • The benefit of formal logic is that it is pure syntax.
  • Any formal logic in these pieces would exist solely in the minds of misguided listeners.
  • While logical reasoning skills are related to success in science, the relationship between thought and formal logic is not clear.
  • Symbols without referents can be manipulated according to the laws of formal logic.
  • Laws of discursive thought, being a text book of formal logic.
British Dictionary definitions for formal logic

formal logic

noun
1.
Also called symbolic logic. the study of systems of deductive argument in which symbols are used to represent precisely defined categories of expressions Compare philosophical logic
2.
a specific formal system that can be interpreted as representing a fragment of natural argument
Encyclopedia Article for formal logic

mathematical logic

the abstract study of propositions, statements, or assertively used sentences and of deductive arguments. The discipline abstracts from the content of these elements the structures or logical forms that they embody. The logician customarily uses a symbolic notation to express such structures clearly and unambiguously and to enable manipulations and tests of validity to be more easily applied. Although the following discussion freely employs the technical notation of modern symbolic logic, its symbols are introduced gradually and with accompanying explanations so that the serious and attentive general reader should be able to follow the development of ideas

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