ABSTRACT
Now reasoning is an argument in which, certain things being laid down, something other than these necessarily comes about through them. (Aristotle, Topica, 100a 25)
The assumption is now commonplace that logic, classical logic even, takes care of reasoning, correct reasoning at least. That assumption is very far astray, as we shall try to explain. A corollary is that the fashionable idea of automating reasoning by mechanising proof procedures in classical logic, is misguided (see further the attached Appendix). Despite the long-standing claim of logic to formulate, or to encapsulate principles of correct reasoning, contemporary mainstream logics have much less to do with reasoning than has been supposed.
