a. (and sb.). [f. LOGIC sb. and L. logic-us LOGIC a. + -AL. Cf. med.L. logicālis and obs. F. (16th c.) logical.]
1. Of or pertaining to logic; also, of the nature of formal argument.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxv. 9. The curious probatioun logicall.
1588. Fraunce, Lawiers Log., Ded. Since first I began to be a medler with these Logical meditations.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 98. But they are put off by the Names of Vertues, and Natures, and Actions, and Passions, and such other Logicall Words.
1646. J. Hall, Horæ Vac., 39. A Sermon, in which there would be Ethicall Truth as well as Logicall.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 212. I beg’d … that we might keep close to the strictest Logicall Disputing.
1707. Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 13. Galen then blam’d the School of Moses and Christ for want of Logical Demonstrations in their Discourses of Laws.
1844. Whately, Logic, III. Introd. (ed. 8), 156. Many Logical writers … have undertaken to give rules ‘for attaining clear ideas.’
1851–5. Brimley, Ess., Tennyson, 38. Our common speech, abounding in logical generalizations and names of classes.
2. That is in accordance with the principles of logic; conformable to the laws of correct reasoning.
1689. Prior, 1st Ep. Fleetwood Shephard, 39. Then he, by sequence logical, Writes best, who never thinks at all.
1814. D. Stewart, Hum. Mind, II. I. § 1. 47. A process of logical reasoning has been often likened to a chain supporting a weight.
1845. Coleridge, Method, in Encycl. Metrop., I. 42. These cannot be introduced into a scientific treatise without destroying the symmetry of its parts by a suspension of the logical order.
1900. R. J. Drummond, Relat. Apostol. Teach., i. 25. He wants a logical explanation of the Christian faith.
3. That follows as a reasonable inference or natural consequence; that is in accordance with the ‘logic’ of events, of human character, etc.
1860. Motley, Netherl. (1863), I. i. 11. Having the sovereignty to dispose of, it seemed logical that the Estates might keep it, if so inclined.
1874. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. i. 3. In France accordingly feudal government runs its logical career.
1883. trans. Stepniak’s Undergr. Russia, 121. It may be called the sign of a lofty mind to which heroism is natural and logical.
4. Of persons: Capable of reasoning correctly.
1664. Pepys, Diary, 18 Nov. I find he is a very logicall man and a good speaker.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 291, ¶ 3. Nor is it sufficient, that a Man who sets up for a Judge in Criticism, should have perused the Authors above mentioned, unless he has also a clear and Logical Head.
1805. J. Leyden, in Scott’s Prose Wks., IV. Biographies II. (1870), 179. You logical lads of Europe will be very little disposed to admit the legitimacy of the conclusion.
Comb. 1901. Edin. Rev., Oct., 290. The strong and logical-minded Manning.
5. [nonce-uses, after Gr. λογικός.] Characterized by reason; rational, reasonable.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., I. iii. (1821), p. xxiii. We may … be too apt to rest in a mere ‘logical life,’ an expression of Simplicius, without any true participation of the divine life.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 466. The logical worship is rendered reasonable service in Rom. xii. 1.
† 6. sb. pl. The subjects that are studied in a course of instruction in logic. Little or small logicals: certain minor questions of the science of logic, which formed the subject of the Parva Logicalia, a collection of treatises by Petrus Hispanus and others. Obs. exc. Hist.
1550. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop., II. (1895), 185. Those rules of restryctyons, amplyfycatyons, and supposytyons very wittelye inuented in the small Logycalles, whyche heare oure chyldren in euerye place do learne.
1569. J. Sanford, trans. Agrippa’s Van. Artes, 22 b. Other intollerable, and vaine wordes which are writen in the little Logicals.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., I. 10. John Colet … after he had spent seven years in Logicals and Philosophicals, was licensed to proceed in Arts.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., II. 328. He was educated in Grammaticals in Wikeham-School … in Logicals and Philosophicals in New College Oxon.
