Extension Based Relations Between Concepts and Propositions in the Tradition of Arabic Logic

Abstract

This study focuses on the relations between concepts and propositions in the literature of Arabic logic. Concept relations have an important place in the fields of definition and syllogism, which are two important subjects of traditional logic, because the generality-specificity relationship between the concepts of a definition sentence is useful in checking its being precise, and the relations between the concepts of a syllogism are useful in checking its consistency. Propositional relations, on the other hand, are important for determining the premise that determines the special conditions for a syllogism to provide a valid conclusion. In this article, after explaining what relations are as an introduction, I discuss the historical development of relations between concepts and propositions in the Islamic logical tradition in separate sections. Arabic logicians express the four logical relations that can occur between concepts or propositions with the term al-nisab-al-arba,,. The four forms of relations that come under this term are: The relation of absolute-general-andspesific (umum wa husus mutlakan), the relation of partial general-and-spesific (umum wa husus min vech), equality (al-musawat) and separation (al-mubayana) relations. These relations arise based on how the concepts can be predicated to each other (haml), while they emerged according to the realization (tahakkuk) of the contents of propositions together. Arabic logicians, considering that the same relations can also arise between propositions according to their modalities and truth realms, addressed and expanded this issue in more detail.