Three Misrepresentations of Logic

Abstract

Three misrepresentations of informal and formal logic by two feminist writers are discussed. Andrea Nye's criticism that the semantics for formal logic abstracts from context is a misrepresentation of formal logic because Nye ignores the development of intensional logics. Second, Nye's criticism that informaIlogicians ignore the origins of arguments is a misrepresentation of fallacy theory. Prominent writers in the field specifiy numerous cases where the origins of an argument are relevant to its evaluation. Third, Valerie Plumwood's criticism that negation in classical logic rests on an exclusivistic dualism that encourages the exclusion of women is shown to be false.

Keywords

• misrepresentation
• logic
• informal
• formal
• Nye
• Plumwood