[Preparatory Notes]

Abstract

It is a very imperfect definition of Logic to say that it is the Art of Reasoning or that it is the Science or even that it is the Science and Art of reasoning. It is a juster and more complete description of it to say that it is the Science of Thought. For it is impossible to give any satisfactory account of the process of Reasoning without first analysing other processes of Thought, Conception, and Judgment. Nor does it suffice merely to recognize the existence of such processes and to describe their objects. We must also investigate their laws. Except upon the ground of such investigation any attempt to analyse the process of Reasoning must fail. It must sink into little more than a mere classification of the forms of inference