The manuscript of Coleridge's Logic is published here in its entirety
for the first time, along with the texts of manuscripts that are
directly related to it.
Coleridge's plans to write about logic go back at least as far as 1803,
but it was not until the 1820s that he undertook to write a book that
would be of practical use to young men about to enter "the bar, the
pulpit, and the senate." By that time the philosophy course he taught to
classes of such young men had given them access to his thoughts, and he
in turn benefited from their interest and enthusiasm. Coleridge wished
to encourage his readers to think for themselves in a manner that was
consistent and self-aware. He hoped to provide them with a system of
logic "applied to the purposes of real life."
His Logic differs from earlier English models in its emphasis on the
psychology of thought and in its sceptical treatment fo the figures of
the syllogism. Here the influence of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
predominates. The Logic is also concerned with the psychology of
language--indeed Coleridge thought of calling the book "The Elements of
Discourse"--and with the philosophical and theological implications of
different semantic theories. Here he was sustained by a vigorous English
tradition and aided by his own subtle experience of the relationship
between thoughts and words.
The Logic is an introduction to thinking about thought. It touches on
a variety of topics--education, the origin of language, the importance
of defining terms, subjective and objective truth, the meaning of
abstraction, understadning and reason, conception and perception,
self-consciousness, intuition, space and time, cause and effect,
mathematical evidence, and the mind's emancipation from the senses--and
behind these characteristic concerns Coleridge's more comprehensive
views may be freshly glimpsed.
J.R. de J. Jackson is Professor of English at the University of Toronto.
He is the author of Method and Imagination in Coleridge's Criticism
and the editor of Coleridge: The Critical Heritage (both published by
Routledge & Kegan Paul).
Bollingen Series LXXV
Originally published in 1981.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from
the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions
preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting
them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the
Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich
scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by
Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
