History of logic

Introduction
Origins of logic in the West
- Precursors of ancient logic
- Aristotle
  - Categorical forms
  - Syllogisms
- Theophrastus of Eresus
- The Megarians and the Stoics
- Late representatives of ancient Greek logic
Medieval logic
- Transmission of Greek logic to the Latin West
- Arabic logic
- The revival of logic in Europe
  - St. Anselm and Peter Abelard
  - The “properties of terms” and discussions of fallacies
- Developments in the 13th and early 14th centuries
  - The theory of supposition
  - Developments in modal logic
- Late medieval logic
Modern logic
- The 16th century
- The 17th century
- Leibniz
- The 18th and 19th centuries
  - Gottfried Ploucquet
  - Johann Heinrich Lambert
  - Other 18th-century logicians
  - Boole and De Morgan
  - Charles Sanders Peirce
  - Gottlob Frege
  - Ernst Schröder
  - Georg Cantor
  - Other 19th-century logicians
Logic since 1900
- Propositional and predicate logic
- Principia Mathematica and its aftermath
- Set theory
  - Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory (ZF)
  - The continuum problem and the axiom of constructibility
  - The axiom of choice
  - Problems and new directions
- Theory of logic (metalogic)
- Syntax and proof theory
- Logical semantics and model theory
  - Completeness
  - Gödel’s incompleteness theorems
  - Development of model theory
- Interfaces of proof theory and model theory
- Theory of recursive functions and computability
  - Effective computability
  - The Turing machine
  - Applications of recursive-function theory

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images

Plato conversing with his pupils

Painting by Rembrandt showing Aristotle in rich dark clothing with a gold chain, resting his hand thoughtfully on a marble bust of Homer, illuminated against a dark background.

Marble bust of Marcus Tullius Cicero, shown with short hair and draped clothing, displayed against a black background.

Holbein the Younger: Boethius

logic: universal affirmative

John von Neumann

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History of logic

Written by

Jaakko J. HintikkaAll

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Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 1, 2026 •History

History of logic, the history of the discipline from its origins among the ancient Greeks to the present time. There was a medieval tradition according to which the Greek philosopher Parmenides (5th century bce) invented logic while living on a rock in Egypt. The story is pure legend, but it does reflect the fact that Parmenides was the first philosopher to use an extended argument for his views rather than merely proposing a vision of...

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