∴ Mantiq for ʿAqīda 17 of 17 lessons

Course plan

Mantiq for ʿAqīda

A step-by-step course in classical logic (manṭiq) as the groundwork for ʿaqīda. Each lesson ends with a quiz. A lesson counts as done once the quiz is passed (about 80%). Later quizzes also bring back questions from earlier lessons.

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Sources (scope)

Roadmap

# Lesson Sources
Unit 1 What logic is, and what knowledge is
1 Why logic is needed; its definition; the four stages of perception; knowledge as "presence of an image"; taṣawwur and taṣdīq Book pp. 2–4
2 Degrees of assent (yaqīn, ẓann, wahm, shakk); simple and compound ignorance; ḍarūrī and naẓarī knowledge; what it takes to grasp an axiom; thought (fikr) as five movements; intuition (ḥads); logic's two jobs Book pp. 5–9
Unit 2 Words and meaning
3 Four modes of existence; signification (dalāla): rational, natural, conventional; verbal dalāla: muṭābaqa, taḍammun, iltizām Book pp. 10–14
4 Words and their meanings: mukhtaṣṣ, mushtarak, manqūl, murtajal, ḥaqīqa and majāz; tarāduf and tabāyun; the four kinds of opposition (taqābul) Book pp. 15–19
5 Single words and compounds: tāmm and nāqiṣ; khabar and inshāʾ; ism, kalima, adāt · with the Units 1–2 test Book pp. 20–23; S4 slides 2–3
Unit 3 Universals
6 Kullī and juzʾī (ḥaqīqī, iḍāfī); mutawāṭiʾ and mushakkik; mafhūm and miṣdāq; primary and common predication Book pp. 24–26
7 The four relations (nisab arbaʿ) and the relations between their contradictories Book pp. 27–30
8 The five universals I: nawʿ, jins, faṣl; the ladder of genera and species Book pp. 31–33
9 The five universals II: khāṣṣa and ʿaraḍ ʿāmm; lāzim and mufāriq; kinds of predication; logical, natural and rational universals Book pp. 33–37; S4 slide 10
Unit 4 Propositions (qaḍāyā)
10 What a qaḍiyya is (and the Qurʾān/ḥadīth question); ḥamliyya, sharṭiyya muttaṣila, sharṭiyya munfaṣila and its three kinds; affirmative and negative S4 slides 2–6; Book pp. 58–59
11 Quantity: shakhṣiyya, kulliyya, juzʾiyya, muhmala; the four quantified forms; contradiction (tanāquḍ) and its eight unities; conversion (ʿaks mustawī) S4 slides 7–9
Unit 5 The syllogism (qiyās)
12 Proof and its three kinds; the definition of qiyās phrase by phrase; the three terms and two premises; truth and validity; iqtirānī and istithnāʾī Book pp. 38–41; S5 slides 2–8, 16–18
13 The general rules of the iqtirānī; the four figures; Figure 1, its conditions and four moods Book pp. 41–45; S5 slides 7, 9–10, 14
14 Figures 2, 3 and 4: conditions, productive moods, reducing them to Figure 1 Book pp. 45–56; S5 slides 11–13, 15
15 Conditional reasoning: the conditional iqtirānī and qiyās istithnāʾī, with its two classic fallacies Book pp. 56–67
16 Syllogisms in real speech: enthymeme (qiyās muḍmar), analysis (taḥlīl), compound syllogisms, qiyās al-khalf, qiyās al-musāwāt Book pp. 39, 67–71; S5 slides 4–5, 19
Unit 6 Beyond the syllogism
17 Induction (istiqrāʾ) and analogy (tamthīl): what each can and cannot give you Book pp. 71–74
Final Cumulative exam, then taking apart real ʿaqīda arguments All

Terms that differ between the slides and the book

Slides (S4/S5) Book Standard Arabic
Unitary proposition Predicative proposition qaḍiyya ḥamliyya
Attached conditional Connected / conjunctive conditional sharṭiyya muttaṣila
Detached conditional Disconnected / disjunctive conditional sharṭiyya munfaṣila
Object Predicate maḥmūl
Encompassing / non-encompassing Universal / particular kulliyya / juzʾiyya
Opposite (العكس) Conversion ʿaks mustawī
Analogy (القياس) Syllogism qiyās (the book keeps "analogy" for tamthīl)
Type 1–4 Figure 1–4 shakl
Smaller / bigger proposition Minor / major premise ṣughrā / kubrā
Small / big term Minor / major term ḥadd aṣghar / ḥadd akbar
ʿĀraḍī khāṣ / ʿām Concomitant / non-concomitant accidental khāṣṣa / ʿaraḍ ʿāmm

Known slips in the sources

Read these places with care; the text says something other than what is meant.

  1. Book p. 3: stage 3 (wahm) is shared with animals. The sentence saying humans are "distinguished" by it is garbled; only stage 4 (ʿaql) sets humans apart.
  2. Book p. 4: "absolute assent (taṣdīq muṭlaq)" covering both kinds should read "absolute conception (taṣawwur muṭlaq)".
  3. Book p. 6: "it is only conception-ignorance that can be divided in this fashion" should read assent-ignorance. Conception-ignorance is always simple.
  4. Book p. 6: "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" should read "the whole is greater than its part" (al-kull aʿẓam min al-juzʾ).
  5. Book p. 19: "we can define contraries as ... the intellection of one requires the other" is the definition of correlatives (mutaḍāyifān), not contraries.
  6. Book p. 28: "contradicts our original supposition that A=B" should be "A > B".
  7. Book p. 33: the translator's "concomitant accidental" means khāṣṣa (a property unique to one kind). Do not confuse it with lāzim (an inseparable accidental), which "concomitant" usually translates.
  8. Book p. 39: "Therefore C A is a quarter of B" should read "Therefore A is a quarter of C".
  9. Book p. 41 onward: "minor premise [ḥadd aṣghar]" and "major premise [ḥadd akbar]" are the minor and major terms. The premises are ṣughrā and kubrā.
  10. Book p. 43: the definition of Figure 1 is reversed. The middle term is the predicate of the minor premise and the subject of the major premise. The book's own examples (Every A is B; Every B is C) and S5 slide 9 have it right.
  11. Book p. 48: Figure 2, mood 2: the conclusion printed as "No potentiality is eternal" should read "No potentiality is a Truth". Mood 3: the conclusion printed as "Some metals are not gold" should read "Not every metal is silver".
  12. Book p. 51: Figure 3, mood 2 reduction: "No B are A" should be "No B is C". Mood 3: the conclusion printed as "Some birds are animals" should read "Some white things are animals".
  13. Book p. 52: Figure 3, mood 6: the conclusion printed as "Some metals are not gold" should read "Not every metal is iron".
  14. Book p. 53: "fifth figure of the third mood" means the fifth mood of the third figure.
  15. Book p. 61: the blood/ink conclusion "... then it is not blood" should be "... then it is not ink".
  16. Book p. 66: "not a verb and it is not a noun" should be "not a verb and not a particle"; "either a verb or a noun" should be "either a verb or a particle".
  17. S4 slide 8 lists seven conditions for contradiction. The classical list has eight; the missing one is relation (iḍāfa).