INTRODUCTION
The actual title of the Port Royal Logic was La logique, ou l’art de penser — which might be translated as ‘Logic, or thinking skills.’ It was one of the most influential philosophical works of the 17th century, combining a user-friendly outline of traditional logic with a strongly Cartesian metaphysics and epistemology. The public lapped it up, since it was state of the art, and written in the vernacular (unlike the dry logic texts studied at university). It was translated into many languages, and Locke, for example, got his ‘way of ideas’ from it.It was one of a number of joint productions by two illustrious teachers at the Jansenist convent of Port Royal just outside Paris. The authors were Antoine Arnauld (1612–1694), with whom Leibniz corresponded, and Pierre Nicole (1623–1695). They first published it anonymously in 1662.
For more information about Jansenism and Arnauld, go to the Introduction to Leibniz’s correspondence with Arnauld. Return by pressing BACK on the Netscape toolbar.
I have translated from the French of an edition published by Auguste Delalain (Paris, 1824), since this is the one I happen to possess.