Logical Reasoning for Forecasting in Mesopotamia

Abstract

In this paper, I show that a kind of perfect logical competence is observed in the Babylonian tablets used for forecasting. In these documents, we see an intuition of some algebraic structures that are used for inferring prognoses as logical conclusions. The paper is based mainly on the omen series reconstructed by N. De Zorzi. It is shown that in composing these divination lists there was implicitly used the Boolean algebra.

Keywords

• symbolic logic
• omens
• divination
• judaic logic
• akkadian
• modus pones
• modus tollens