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Sun-Joo Shin.
The Logical Status of Diagrams.
CUP. 1994

Diagrams are widely used in reasoning about problems in physics, mathematics, and logic, but have traditionally been considered to be only heuristic tools and not valid elements of mathematical proofs. This book challenges this prejudice against visualization in the history of logic and mathematics and provides a formal foundation for work on natural reasoning in a visual mode.

The author presents Venn diagrams as a formal system of representation equipped with its own syntax and semantics and specifies rules of transformation that make this system sound and complete. The system is then extended to the equivalent of a first-order monadic language. The soundness of these diagrammatic systems refutes the contention that graphical representation is misleading in reasoning. The validity of the transformation rules ensures that the correct application of the rules will not lead to fallacies. The book concludes with a discussion of some fundamental differences between graphical systems and linguistic systems.

This groundbreaking work will have important influence on research in logic, philosophy, and knowledge representation.

Amirouche Moktefi, Sun-Joo Shin.
Visual Reasoning with Diagrams.
Birkhauser. 2013

Logic, the discipline that explores valid reasoning, does not need to be limited to a specific form of representation but should include any form as long as it allows us to draw sound conclusions from given information. The use of diagrams has a long but unequal history in logic: The golden age of diagrammatic logic of the 19th century, thanks to Euler and Venn diagrams, was followed by the early 2oth century’s symbolization of modern logic by Frege and Russell. Recently, we have been witnessing a revival of interest in diagrams from various disciplines—mathematics, logic, philosophy, cognitive science, and computer science. This book aims to provide a space for this newly debated topic—the logical status of diagrams—in order to advance the goal of universal logic by exploring common and/or unique features of visual reasoning.