This essay was written in 1995. It does not necessarily reflect the author's current viewpoints. Story of Judaic Logic. I have to describe briefly how this book developed, so as to explain the various turns it has taken. I have been a student and writer of logic and philosophy since my late teens, and interested [...]

 Interview (extrait):La Revue juive(Zurich) du 22 janvier 1999, avant la conférence .Le talmud et la raison ...Le Centre d’études juives auprès de l’Université de Genève invite Avi Sion à décrire le raisonnement talmudique. Présentation.·Qu’est donc vraiment talmudique?Comme vous savez, le judaïsme et la loi juive ont été développés par les rabbins de la Michna et [...]

La philosophie de L'Islam[1] Elle trouve ses racines dans les académies de l'église schismatique des Nestoriens et celle des Jacobites, qui, émigrant de la Syrie au 4e s., se sont établies dans la perse sassanide à Nisibin et Jundichapur. Au 7e s., les musulmans ne s'intéressaient pas encore à la logique et la philosophie grecque, [...]

The Structure of Islamic Law Islamic law has three sources: the Koran, the hadith and the law doctors. 1) THE KORAN: Alleged revelation from God to angel Gabriel to the prophet Mohammed, to the people, contemporary and subsequent. Equivalent to the Torah (or Tanakh); it is the founding scriptures, the ultimate reference document for Islamic [...]

Islamic Hermeneutics[1] If there is a conflict between two verses of the Koran, or a verse of the Koran seems in conflict with an authentic tenet of the hadith, Muslim doctors of law propose the followingharmonizations. 1st rule: exception.If one text is more restricted in scope than aconflictingother, the narrower is considered an exception to the larger.The [...]

DIAGRAM 10R. Ishmael’sRule No. 13, the last in his list, covers many different cases, most of which cannot readily be illustrated. However, the following diagram illustratesone exampleof the dialectic often involved, where thesis and antithesis are both narrowed, and replaced by their synthesis or common ground.Diagram 10This illustration is symbolic, note well, because strictly speaking [...]

DIAGRAM 9R. Ishmael’sRule No. 11 – “…lidon badavar hechadash”– can also to some extent be represented graphically. Do not refer in the present case to the earlier common premises and conclusions (for Rules 8-10) – this is an entirely different situation. Here, we are initially given the premises:All S1 are P1andAll S2 are P2And we [...]

DIAGRAM 8R. Ishmael’sRule No. 9 – “shehu kheinyano”– presumably has as its fourth premise:Some P1 are P2 and some P1 are not P2, andsome P2 are P1 and some P2 are not P1(predicatal premise).This situation, where P1 and P2 only partly overlap, may be graphically represented as follows:Diagram 8The conclusions we can formally draw are [...]

DIAGRAM 7R. Ishmael’sRule No. 10 – “shelo kheinyano”– is difficult to depict since it concerns a conflict resolution. Its fourth premise is:No P1 is P2/ No P2 is P1 (predicatal premise).As the following first diagram shows this premise is in conflict with the others, since if the circles representing P1 and P2 cannot overlap at [...]

DIAGRAM 6R. Ishmael’sRule No. 8(b) – “lelamed hefekh hadavar”– the particularizing version of “lelamed”, may be depicted as follows, since its fourth premise is (note the reversal of order of the terms, in comparison to the preceding case):All P1 are P2(predicatal premise).Diagram 6The four premises formally yield the conclusion “All S1 are P2” (etc.).Yet R. [...]