Contents in detail: Abstract Foreword 1. Innovations 2. History 3. Assessments
PART I – FORMALITIES 1. The standard forms 1. Copulative a fortiori arguments 2. Implicational a fortiori arguments 3. Validations 4. Ranging from zero or less 5. Secondary moods
2. More formalities 1. Species and Genera 2. Proportionality 3. A crescendo argument 4. Hermeneutics 5. Relative middle terms
3. Still more formalities 1. Understanding the laws of thought 2. Quantification 3. A fortiori through induction 4. Antithetical items 5. Traductions
4. Apparently variant forms 1. Variations in form and content 2. Logical-epistemic a fortiori 3. Ethical-legal a fortiori 4. There are no really hybrid forms 5. Probable inferences 6. Correlating ontical and probabilistic forms
5. Comparisons and correlations 1. Analogical argument 2. Is a fortiori argument syllogism? 3. Correlating arguments 4. Structural comparisons 5. From syllogism to a fortiori argument 6. From a fortiori argument to syllogism 7. Reiterating translations 8. Lessons learned
PART II – ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL HISTORY 6. A fortiori in Greece and Rome 1. Aristotle’s observations 2. The Kneales’ list 3. Aristotle in practice 4. Relation to syllogism 5. Cicero 6. Alexander of Aphrodisias 7. Historical questions
7. A fortiori in the Talmud 1. Brief history of a fortiori 2. A brief course in the relevant logic 3. A fresh analysis of the Mishna Baba Qama 2:5 4. A logician’s reading of Numbers 12:14-15 5. A critique of the Gemara in Baba Qama 25a 6. A slightly different reading of the Gemara
8. In the Talmud, continued 1. Natural, conventional or revealed? 2. Measure for measure 3. The dayo principle in formal terms 4. The human element 5. Qal vachomer without dayo 6. Three additional Gemara arguments 7. Assessment of the Talmud’s logic 8. The syllogistic Midot 9. Historical questions
9. Post-Talmudic rabbis 1. Logic and history issues 2. Philo of Alexandria 3. Sifra 4. The Korach arguments 5. Saadia Gaon 6. Rashi and Tosafot 7. Kol zeh assim 8. Maimonides 9. More on medieval authors 10. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto 11. More research is needed
10. A fortiori in the Christian Bible 1. In the Christian Bible 2. Jesus of Nazareth 3. Paul of Tarsus 4. In later Christian discourse 5. Additional findings
11. Islamic ‘logic’ 1. Logic in the Koran 2. About the Koran 3. Logic in the hadiths 4. A fortiori in fiqh, based on Hallaq 5. Other presentations and issues 6. The dayo principle and more 7. The essence of Islamic discourse
12. A fortiori in China and India 1. Zen logic in general 2. A fortiori use in Zen 3. The Indian kaimutika
PART III – MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS 13. Moses Mielziner 1. Description of the argument 2. Structural analyses 3. Concerning the jus talionis 4. Restrictions and refutations
14. Adolf Schwarz 1. Equation to syllogism 2. Jacobs’ critique 3. Kunst’s critique 4. Wiseman on Schwarz 5. Why a fortiori is not syllogism
15. Saul Lieberman 1. Hermogenes 2. Influences on rabbis 3. Reassessment 4. Cicero
16. Louis Jacobs 1. The simple and complex types 2. Deficiencies in Jacobs’ forms 3. More comments on Jacobs’ work 4. A more recent contribution
17. Heinrich Guggenheimer 1. Tout un programme 2. Theory of a fortiori 3. A faulty approach
18. Adin Steinsaltz 1. Qal vachomer and dayo 2. A recurrent fallacy 3. Lack of formalism
19. Jonathan Cohen 1. Formula for a fortiori 2. Fallacy of diverse weights 3. No effort of validation
20. Michael Avraham 1. Model of a fortiori 2. Outlook on a fortiori 3. On Baba Qama 2:5
21. Gabriel Abitbol 1. Name and functioning 2. Tabular representation 3. Treatment of dayo 4. Refutations 5. Closing remarks
22. Hyam Maccoby 1. Purely a fortiori argument 2. A crescendo argument 3. Baba Qama 25a 4. Faulty qal vachomer
23. Alexander Samely 1. General definition 2. Descriptive formula 3. Three alleged techniques 4. Bava Kamma 25a-b 5. Samely’s online database 6. My critical researches
24. Lenartowicz and Koszteyn 1. The form of the argument 2. The dayo principle 3. Epistemic substitution
25. Abraham, Gabbay and Schild 1. Their opinion of past work 2. Their erroneous basic premise 3. Some errors of logic 4. Mixing apples and oranges 5. Quid pro quo Addendum to chapter 25
26. Stefan Goltzberg 1. Source of his definition 2. Soundness of the argument 3. The dayo principle 4. His “two-dimensional” theory
27. Andrew Schumann 1. Interpretation of Baba Qama 25a 2. Syllogism as a fortiori 3. Grandiosity without substance 4. Logic custom-made 5. Not logic, but lunacy
28. Allen Wiseman 1. Definition and Moods 2. Inductive a fortiori 3. Abduction and conduction 4. Proportional a fortiori 5. The dayo principle 6. The scope of dayo 7. Miriam and Aaron 8. Summing up
29. Yisrael Ury 1. An ingenious idea 2. Diagrams for a fortiori argument 3. No a crescendo or dayo 4. Kol zeh achnis
30. Hubert Marraud 1. Warrants and premises 2. The main form of a fortiori 3. So-called meta-arguments 4. Paulo minor argument 5. Legal a fortiori argument
31. Various other commentaries 1. H. S. Hirschfeld 2. H.W.B. Joseph 3. Moshe Ostrovsky 4. Pierre André Lalande 5. David Daube 6. Meir Zvi Bergman 7. Strack and Stemberger 8. Meir Brachfeld 9. Gary G. Porton 10. Mordechai Torczyner 11. Ron Villanova 12. Giovanni Sartor 13. And others still
32. A fortiori in various lexicons 1. The Jewish Encyclopedia 2. Encyclopaedia Judaica 3. Encyclopedia Talmudit 4. How to define a fortiori 5. Various dictionaries and encyclopedias 6. Wikipedia
33. Conclusions and prospects 1. My past errors and present improvements 2. Historical research into logic 3. Assessing contemporaries 4. Perspectives
APPENDICES 1. A fortiori discourse in the Jewish Bible 2. A fortiori discourse in the Mishna 3. A fortiori discourse in the two Talmuds 4. A fortiori discourse by Plato and Aristotle 1. Plato 2. Aristotle
5. A fortiori discourse in other world literature 1. Ancient literature 2. More recent literature
6. Logic in the Torah 7. Some logic topics of general interest 1. About modern symbolic logic 2. The triviality of the existential import doctrine 3. The vanity of the tetralemma 4. The Liar paradox (redux) 5. The Russell paradox (redux)
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