mantikê

Mantikê is the Kurdish term for logic, the systematic study of valid reasoning, the structure of arguments, and the criteria by which truth claims are evaluated. It encompasses both formal logic, which uses abstract symbols and rigorous deduction, and informal logic, which analyzes everyday reasoning and argumentative quality. The word derives from Arabic mantiq, itself rooted in Greek logical tradition.

Historically, logic developed in several civilizations. In ancient Greece, Aristotle’s syllogistic laid the groundwork for formal reasoning and classification of arguments. Later Stoic and medieval scholars refined methods of inference. In the Indian subcontinent, Nyaya and related schools produced sophisticated theories of inference and debate. In the Islamic world, logicians such as Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Al-Ghazali integrated Aristotelian ideas with new rules of proof. The modern era introduced mathematical logic, with figures like Frege, Russell, Gödel, and Tarski transforming logic into a formal science underpinning computer science and formal verification.

Subfields and methods typically include propositional logic, predicate logic, modal logic, temporal and other non-classical logics; approaches such as truth-functional analysis, natural deduction, sequent calculus, and model theory. Applications span philosophy, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, law, and artificial intelligence, where logic supports reasoning systems, programming language theory, and automated theorem proving.

Mantikê is taught in philosophy and science curricula and serves as a bridge between ancient reasoning traditions and contemporary formal methods, reflecting its role as a foundational discipline across cultures.