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How did Juan Luis Vives use a V-shaped symbol in logical notation?
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Plato (center left) and Aristotle, detail from School of Athens, fresco by Raphael, 1508–11; in the Stanza della Segnatura, the Vatican. Plato is shown pointing to the heavens and the realm of forms, Aristotle to the earth and the realm of things.
In the history of logic, the Spanish philosopher Juan Luis Vives (1492–1540) utilized a V-shaped symbol to indicate the inclusion of one term within another.1
This practice was influenced by the work of the Catalan mystic and logician Ramón Llull, whose Ars magna attempted to symbolize concepts and derive propositions through various combinations. The efforts of Vives, along with those of the German logician Johann Heinrich Alsted, are considered by historians to represent perhaps the first systematic attempt at creating a logical symbolism.1