Thinking about Contradictions: The Imaginary Logic of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Vasil’ev (Synthese Library Book 386)

Annotation This volume examines the entire logical and philosophical production of Nicolai A. Vasil'ev, studying his life and activities as a historian and man of letters. Readers will gain a comprehensive understanding of this influential Russian logician, philosopher, psychologist, and poet. The author frames Vasil'ev's work within its historical and cultural context. He takes into consideration both the situation of logic in Russia and the state of logic in Western Europe, from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th. Following this, the book considers the attempts to develop non-Aristotelian logics or ideas that present affinities with imaginary logic. It then looks at the contribution of traditional logic in elaborating non-classical ideas. This logic allows the author to deal with incomplete objects just as imaginary logic does with contradictory ones. Both logics are objects of interesting analysis by modern researchers. This volume will appeal to graduate students and scholars interested not only in Vasil'ev's work, but also in the history of non-classical logics Dedication 6 Preface 7 Note to Readers 9 Notes on Transliteration 10 Contents 13 Introduction: From an Individual to a World 15 Chapter 1: An Unquiet Life, a Multi-faceted Output 20 1.1 Kazan 20 1.2 The Family 21 1.3 Childhood and Education 24 1.4 University Years: Medicine, Poetry, History 24 1.5 Teaching and Research: Logic, Literature, Ethics 28 1.6 War, Illness, Death 31 Chapter 2: The Historical and Cultural Context 33 2.1 In Russia 34 2.2 In Western Europe 38 2.3 Readings 40 Chapter 3: The Logic of Concepts 45 3.1 The Forms of Judgment According to Christoph Sigwart 47 3.2 Particular Judgment as Accidental Judgment 50 3.3 The Triangle of Oppositions and the Law of Excluded Fourth 55 3.4 A Debate on Particular Propositions 67 Chapter 4: Non-Aristotelian Logic 70 4.1 A Perennial Contemporary: Aristotle 71 4.2 Isaac Husik 74 4.3 Jan Łukasiewicz and Alexius Meinong 79 Chapter 5: Imaginary Logic 91 5.1 Countering the Uniqueness of Logic and the Absoluteness of Logical Principles 91 5.2 A Novel Concept of Negation 97 5.3 Two Laws Regarding Contradiction 101 5.4 Indifferent Judgment 105 5.5 Indifferent Syllogisms 109 5.6 Imaginary Logic and non-Euclidean Geometries 115 5.7 Alternative Interpretations of Imaginary Logic 117 5.8 Metalogic 119 Chapter 6: Interpretations 121 6.1 The First Readers, the First Criticisms 122 6.2 The Rediscovery of Vasil’ev and the Many-Valued Interpretation of Imaginary Logic 125 6.3 The Paraconsistent Interpretation 128 6.4 Syllogistic Reconstructions of Imaginary Logic 133 6.5 Systematic Historical Readings of Imaginary Logic 135 6.6 Meinong and Vasil’ev: A Not-Impossible Connubium 137 6.7 Conclusion 140 Bibliography 143 1. Works of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Vasil’ev 143 1.1. Published works 143 1.2. Literary Estate 146 1.3. Translations 147 2. Works on N. A. Vasil’ev 148 3. Other works 161 Index 173 Front Matter ....Pages i-xxi An Unquiet Life, a Multi-faceted Output (Venanzio Raspa)....Pages 1-13 The Historical and Cultural Context (Venanzio Raspa)....Pages 15-26 The Logic of Concepts (Venanzio Raspa)....Pages 27-51 Non-Aristotelian Logic (Venanzio Raspa)....Pages 53-73 Imaginary Logic (Venanzio Raspa)....Pages 75-104 Interpretations (Venanzio Raspa)....Pages 105-126 Back Matter ....Pages 127-160