Abstract

Quantificational logic was developed by some ingenious mathematicians towards the end of the 19th century, especially during the 1880's. It was indeed, as Quine once wrote, a decade when quantification was "breaking out all over". While it is acknowledged that Peirce was among those founders of modern logic, his specific achievements and contribution to the field seem to deserve more notice. The present paper focuses on the emergence of Peirce's quantificational logic, deriving most of the material from his original writings. We shall also glance through O. H. Mitchell's work, which is little discussed in the history of logic.