(1) Logic as a science makes known the laws and forms of thought and as an art suggests conditions which must be fulfilled in order to think rightly.
A discussion of the second phase of the definition would be incomplete without a consideration of the negative aspect as well as the positive. Such a viewpoint makes evident the question “What errors must be avoided in order to reason correctly?” An answer to this question is given under the caption of Logical Fallacies.
(2) A logical fallacy is any error in reasoning which has the appearance of correctness.
A fallacy which deceives the writer or speaker himself is termed a paralogism, whereas a fallacy formed for the express purpose of deceiving another is denominated a sophism.
It was the pagan teacher Socrates who taught modern thought to frown upon all forms of sophism; these exist to-day much as they did in the olden time.
(3) Because of disagreement as to definition, and because of inability to prevent an overlapping of species, any logical division of the deductive fallacies must be faulty.
In the division of the deductive fallacies, this treatise retains the phraseology and form worked out by Aristotle, so far as such retention is consistent with the changes incident to the advances of time.
(4) Formal fallacies occur because of careless and improper use of words as arbitrary signs. Formal fallacies are definite and easy of comprehension.
The material fallacies are due to certain inconsistencies in thought and to imperfect ways of interpreting language. They are more subtle and thus more difficult of comprehension than the formal fallacies.
There are material fallacies in thought and material fallacies in language; the former are due to looseness in thinking and the latter to lack of precision in expression.