Literary notes about logical (AI summary)
The word "logical" in literature has been employed in a remarkably diverse manner, functioning both as a marker of clear, systematic reasoning and as a tool for irony or metaphor. In some texts, it denotes a strict adherence to rationality and methodical thought—for instance, when used to highlight the rigorous nature of syllogistic proof or mathematical precision ([1], [2], [3]). At the same time, authors like Nietzsche and Brontë have applied it to character and temperament—whether critiquing a deficiency in "logical courage" ([4]) or describing an inherent consistency even in passion ([5]). Moreover, "logical" frequently appears in discussions turning on cause and effect, suggesting that certain outcomes are self-evident or inevitable ([6], [7], [8]). This dual usage—as both a descriptor of an ideal cognitive process and a sometimes ironic commentary on the constraints of rationality—demonstrates the term’s wide-reaching influence across genres and eras in literature.
- The conclusion deduced from a logical syllogism depends for its truth on the two premises assumed, and it is the same in mathematics.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - “I dispute the availability, and thus the value, of that reason which is cultivated in any especial form other than the abstractly logical.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - This is necessary, if logical considerations shall form the basis of the pure concepts of the understanding.
— from Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Immanuel Kant - What miserable weakness, what lack of logical courage!
— from The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - Moreover, a vein of reason ever ran through her passion: she was logical even when fierce.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë - It is to face the flaming logical fact, and its frightful consequences.
— from What's Wrong with the World by G. K. Chesterton - This happiness is a perfectly natural, consistent, logical consequence.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - And yet, come to think, it is a logical consequence enough.
— from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells