Abstract

In the early 1950s Arthur Prior wrote The Craft of Formal Logic. The manuscript of some 220,000 words remains as a whole unpublished. Some of it has appeared, transformed, in Prior’s Formal Logic and in Prior’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy articles. P. T. Geach and A. J. P. Kenny here provide us five chapters of the original Craft, commenting that they "make up a self-contained account of the traditional doctrine of propositions and terms". The appendix gives us the full table of contents of the original Craft. Comparing the present book to Prior’s Logic and the Basis of Ethics, the editors comment, wisely, that "Prior is not concerned to decide for us these controverted questions of logical doctrine. He may be compared to an experienced judge summing up in a complicated civil action: the case for each side is clearly and fairly presented..."