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Logic in tolkāppiyam

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Handbook of Logical Thought in India

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Abstract

tolkāppiyam shows us that logic had an important place in the primal society (known as tiṇai). Such primal cultural practices as “tarukkam,” “vākai,” analogical reasoning, the use of the criteria of knowledge (“aḷavai”) in premarital life situations and in oral texts (such as mutumoḻi and kāṇṭikai), and also the primal social institution, namely, the assembly (avai) where public debates were held, were all part of the philosophical tradition of this society. Such philosophy embraced logic, which had rhetorical as well as epistemic functions. If rhetorical logic was persuasive (as in tarukkam) and contestatory (as in vākai in combat and in the assembly), epistemic logic (aḷavai) was validative. In fact, early Tamil logic was a complex discipline not easily distinguishable from philosophy (especially, epistemology and ethics) and rhetoric.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Nirmal Selvamony

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  1. Nirmal Selvamony
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humani, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India

    Sundar Sarukkai

  2. School of Cognitive Science, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

    Mihir Chakraborty

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  1. Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Nirmal Selvamony

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Selvamony, N. (2022). Logic in tolkāppiyam. In: Sarukkai, S., Chakraborty, M. (eds) Handbook of Logical Thought in India. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1812-8_6-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1812-8_6-2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-81-322-1812-8

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Logic in
    Published:
    05 January 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1812-8_6-2

  2. Original

    Logic in
    Published:
    29 January 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1812-8_6-1

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