Aristotle’s Dynamic Logic

In this ground-breaking interpretation of Aristotle’s logic, Zoe McConaughey sets out a reconstruction of the foundations of Western formal logic that challenges the dominant paradigm of rationality.Aristotle's Dynamic Logic develops the first dialogical reconstruction of Aristotle's assertoric syllogistic using modern, formal logic, which rests on a self-standing and historically informed dialogical interpretation of Aristotle’s logical texts, stressing the continuity between the Prior Analytics (syllogistic) and the Topics (dialectic). Using the modern tools of formal logic as well as a close reading of the texts, this dialogical approach to assertoric syllogistic challenges the traditional view of syllogistic as a monological, premise-to-conclusion, and sterile form of argumentation.A key feature of the book is its historical grounding: before providing the formal reconstruction, McConaughey defends a dialogical interpretation of Aristotle’s logic from the perspective of the texts themselves and their ancient interpreters. The book will be of interest to those studying the history of philosophy and logicians working on new developments in dialogical logic.