Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. The Logical Status of Diagrams
  • Cited by 74
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
November 2009
Print publication year:
1995
Online ISBN:
9780511574696
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511574696
Subjects:
Mathematics, Logic, Categories and Sets, Computer Science, Programming Languages and Applied Logic
Information

Book description

Diagrams are widely used in reasoning about problems in physics, mathematics and logic, but have traditionally been considered to be only heuristic tools and not valid elements of mathematical proofs. This book challenges this prejudice against visualisation in the history of logic and mathematics and provides a formal foundation for work on natural reasoning in a visual mode. The author presents Venn diagrams as a formal system of representation equipped with its own syntax and semantics and specifies rules of transformation that make this system sound and complete. The system is then extended to the equivalent of a first-order monadic language. The soundness of these diagrammatic systems refutes the contention that graphical representation is misleading in reasoning. The validity of the transformation rules ensures that the correct application of the rules will not lead to fallacies. The book concludes with a discussion of some fundamental differences between graphical systems and linguistic systems. This groundbreaking work will have important influence on research in logic, philosophy and knowledge representation.

Reviews

"I will conclude by offering general praise for a work that really does deserve praise. Even more, it deserves to be read by those mathematicians and logicians who adhere to the general prejudice against diagrams. Shin has gone much farther than anyone in showing how a diagrammatic system can hold its own as a medium for reasoning....this book is clear and convincing....Shin's mastery and manipulation of her technical tools is always thorough and lucid. All in all, this is a very impressive, valuable piece of work." Modern Logic

"The book is refreshing in its clarity and modesty, and in its regular return to historial precedents. It will give welcome reassurance to all those logicians for whom pictures seem indisputably the simplest way for the mind to comprehend syllogistic reasoning." M. Schiff, Choice

"...The author's style is nice, very precise and approachable. The soundness and completeness of Venn systems provide a legitimate reason why logicians should be interested in nonlinguistic representation systems. Undoubtedly, this will be one of the rare inspiring sources motivating others to work in the field of visual representation systems." Branislav Boricic, Mathematical Reviews

"Shin has shown that sysytems of diagrams can be developed that precisley parallel axiomatic formal systems for monadic predicate logic....Shin correctly points out what diagram systems and verbal systems can both do...that realistic pictures...can't." Phillip L. Peterson, Philosophy in Review

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.