Teaching syllogistics using conceptual graphs

Abstract

It has for centuries been commonly believed that syllogistic reasoning is an essential part of human rationality. For this reason, Aristotelian syllogistics has since the rise of the European university been a standard component of logic teaching. During the medieval period syllogistic validity was presented in terms of a number of artificial words designed to summarize the deductive structure of this basic system. The present paper is a continuation of earlier studies involving practical experiments with informatics students using a student-facing Java-Applet running in the student's browser, implemented using the Prolog programming language as embodied in a Java implementation called Prolog+CG. The aim of the present paper is to study some interesting conceptual aspects of syllogistic reasoning and to investigate whether CG formalism can be helpful in order to obtain a better understanding of syllogistic reasoning in general and the system of Aristotelian syllogisms conceived as a deductive (axiomatic) structure in particular. Some prototypes of tools for basic logic teaching have been developed using Prolog+CG, and various preliminary tests of the tools have been carried out. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.