What do you think?
Rate this book
The Art of Logical Thinking: Or the Laws of Reasoning
Reasoning is defined as: The act, process or art of exercising the faculty of reason ;the act or factdty of employing reason in argument; argumentation, ratiocination; reasoning power; disputation, discussion, argumentation. Stewart says: The word reason itself is far from being precise in its meaning. In common and popular discourse it denotes that power by which we distinguish truth from falsehood, and right from wrong, and by which we are enabled to combine means for the attainment of particular ends.
122 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1909
110 people are currently reading
340 people want to read
About the author
William Walker Atkinson
2,403 books394 followersPseudonyms: Theron Q. Dumont, Yogi Ramacharaka, Swami Bhakta Vishita & Swami Panchadasi
William Walker Atkinson (December 5, 1862 – November 22, 1932) was an attorney, merchant, publisher, and author, as well as an occultist and an American pioneer of the New Thought movement. He is also known to have been the author of the pseudonymous works attributed to Theron Q. Dumont, Swami Panchadasi and Yogi Ramacharaka and others.
Due in part to Atkinson's intense personal secrecy and extensive use of pseudonyms, he is now largely forgotten, despite having obtained mention in past editions of Who's Who in America, Religious Leaders of America, and several similar publications—and having written more than 100 books in the last 30 years of his life. His works have remained in print more or less continuously since 1900.
William Walker Atkinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland on December 5, 1862, to William and Emma Atkinson. He began his working life as a grocer at 15 years old, probably helping his father. He married Margret Foster Black of Beverly, New Jersey, in October 1889, and they had two children. The first probably died young. The second later married and had two daughters.
Atkinson pursued a business career from 1882 onwards and in 1894 he was admitted as an attorney to the Bar of Pennsylvania. While he gained much material success in his profession as a lawyer, the stress and over-strain eventually took its toll, and during this time he experienced a complete physical and mental breakdown, and financial disaster. He looked for healing and in the late 1880s he found it with New Thought, later attributing the restoration of his health, mental vigor and material prosperity to the application of the principles of New Thought.
Some time after his healing, Atkinson began to write articles on the truths he felt he had discovered, which were then known as Mental Science. In 1889, an article by him entitled "A Mental Science Catechism," appeared in Charles Fillmore's new periodical, Modern Thought.
By the early 1890s Chicago had become a major centre for New Thought, mainly through the work of Emma Curtis Hopkins, and Atkinson decided to move there. Once in the city, he became an active promoter of the movement as an editor and author. He was responsible for publishing the magazines Suggestion (1900–1901), New Thought (1901–1905) and Advanced Thought (1906–1916).
In 1900 Atkinson worked as an associate editor of Suggestion, a New Thought Journal, and wrote his probable first book, Thought-Force in Business and Everyday Life, being a series of lessons in personal magnetism, psychic influence, thought-force, concentration, will-power, and practical mental science.
He then met Sydney Flower, a well-known New Thought publisher and businessman, and teamed up with him. In December, 1901 he assumed editorship of Flower's popular New Thought magazine, a post which he held until 1905. During these years he built for himself an enduring place in the hearts of its readers. Article after article flowed from his pen. Meanwhile he also founded his own Psychic Club and the so-called "Atkinson School of Mental Science". Both were located in the same building as Flower's Psychic Research and New Thought Publishing Company.
Atkinson was a past president of the International New Thought Alliance.
Throughout his subsequent career, Atkinson wrote and published under his own name and many pseudonyms. It is not known whether he ever acknowledged authorship of these pseudonymous works, but all of the supposedly independent authors whose writings are now credited to Atkinson were linked to one another by virtue of the fact that their works were released by a series of publishing houses with shared addresses and they also wrote for a series of magazines with a shared roster of authors. Atkinson was the editor of a
William Walker Atkinson (December 5, 1862 – November 22, 1932) was an attorney, merchant, publisher, and author, as well as an occultist and an American pioneer of the New Thought movement. He is also known to have been the author of the pseudonymous works attributed to Theron Q. Dumont, Swami Panchadasi and Yogi Ramacharaka and others.
Due in part to Atkinson's intense personal secrecy and extensive use of pseudonyms, he is now largely forgotten, despite having obtained mention in past editions of Who's Who in America, Religious Leaders of America, and several similar publications—and having written more than 100 books in the last 30 years of his life. His works have remained in print more or less continuously since 1900.
William Walker Atkinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland on December 5, 1862, to William and Emma Atkinson. He began his working life as a grocer at 15 years old, probably helping his father. He married Margret Foster Black of Beverly, New Jersey, in October 1889, and they had two children. The first probably died young. The second later married and had two daughters.
Atkinson pursued a business career from 1882 onwards and in 1894 he was admitted as an attorney to the Bar of Pennsylvania. While he gained much material success in his profession as a lawyer, the stress and over-strain eventually took its toll, and during this time he experienced a complete physical and mental breakdown, and financial disaster. He looked for healing and in the late 1880s he found it with New Thought, later attributing the restoration of his health, mental vigor and material prosperity to the application of the principles of New Thought.
Some time after his healing, Atkinson began to write articles on the truths he felt he had discovered, which were then known as Mental Science. In 1889, an article by him entitled "A Mental Science Catechism," appeared in Charles Fillmore's new periodical, Modern Thought.
By the early 1890s Chicago had become a major centre for New Thought, mainly through the work of Emma Curtis Hopkins, and Atkinson decided to move there. Once in the city, he became an active promoter of the movement as an editor and author. He was responsible for publishing the magazines Suggestion (1900–1901), New Thought (1901–1905) and Advanced Thought (1906–1916).
In 1900 Atkinson worked as an associate editor of Suggestion, a New Thought Journal, and wrote his probable first book, Thought-Force in Business and Everyday Life, being a series of lessons in personal magnetism, psychic influence, thought-force, concentration, will-power, and practical mental science.
He then met Sydney Flower, a well-known New Thought publisher and businessman, and teamed up with him. In December, 1901 he assumed editorship of Flower's popular New Thought magazine, a post which he held until 1905. During these years he built for himself an enduring place in the hearts of its readers. Article after article flowed from his pen. Meanwhile he also founded his own Psychic Club and the so-called "Atkinson School of Mental Science". Both were located in the same building as Flower's Psychic Research and New Thought Publishing Company.
Atkinson was a past president of the International New Thought Alliance.
Throughout his subsequent career, Atkinson wrote and published under his own name and many pseudonyms. It is not known whether he ever acknowledged authorship of these pseudonymous works, but all of the supposedly independent authors whose writings are now credited to Atkinson were linked to one another by virtue of the fact that their works were released by a series of publishing houses with shared addresses and they also wrote for a series of magazines with a shared roster of authors. Atkinson was the editor of a
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 4, 2019
This book gives an insight on how people should be reasoning. It is a little difficult to read due to some of the lingo used by the author. But as soon as you inform yourself the book gives excellent reasoning and evidence to how people reason and what they go through to make decisions. It helps understand the idea of logical thinking by introducing the idea of inductive and immediate and inductive reasoning. I think this book should be read because it is important to understand how people think and how you should correctly think and reason.
April 21, 2020
It's very possible it's just an edition problem, but the Kindle version of this book from Amazon (checked out through my library) is riddled with punctuation and spelling errors. I wrote some of them down because they are so ridiculous. For instance: "AU" instead of "All" is written more than once as in "AU men are mortal"; "Easoning" for "Reasoning" happens several times; "hook" instead of "book"; "Men moist constantly employ imperfect induction," instead of "Men must"; "8yllogism\y" instead of "syllogism"; "Greothe" instead of "Goethe"; and even a chapter heading written as "Reasoning by Akalogy" instead of "by Analogy." Surely nobody proofread this edition. The book lost most credibility because of these errors and many others. If I hadn't taken a philosophy and logical reasoning classes in college, so I already knew the concepts, I would have questioned the whole book.
As it is, this author heavily quotes William Stanley Jevons, but only lists him as "Jevons." I hadn't heard of him before, so I looked him up. Obviously, just because I hadn't heard of him doesn't mean he wasn't someone in authority, but like I said, because of the typing errors the book lost credibility. I discovered on my own Jevons was an English logician worth quoting. I probably should have read Jevon's works, not this edition of Atkinson.
The writing style is very old fashioned, but it turns out Atkinson mostly lived from mid 1800s to early 1900s. This is definitely not a modern book. Nor is the subject written like it's an "art," so the title is a little misleading. There isn't anything new or artistic in this.
The material in the book is very basic logic and reasoning. Maybe it's meant to be an old sort of "Logic for Dummies," but because of all the errors, I started to think it is more like "Logic by Dummies." The only reason I persisted in reading it is because I didn't want to have two "did not finish" books in a row. Also, I wanted to be able to write a review and I don't rate what I don't finish. Thankfully, it's a quick read. I'm giving it one star instead of none only because the basic principles of logic and reasoning are correct.
I do not recommend this edition of this book. I'm also not inclined to read anything else by W.W. Atkinson. I didn't find out who published this edition. Whoever it is, I don't want to read any other of their Kindle books.
As it is, this author heavily quotes William Stanley Jevons, but only lists him as "Jevons." I hadn't heard of him before, so I looked him up. Obviously, just because I hadn't heard of him doesn't mean he wasn't someone in authority, but like I said, because of the typing errors the book lost credibility. I discovered on my own Jevons was an English logician worth quoting. I probably should have read Jevon's works, not this edition of Atkinson.
The writing style is very old fashioned, but it turns out Atkinson mostly lived from mid 1800s to early 1900s. This is definitely not a modern book. Nor is the subject written like it's an "art," so the title is a little misleading. There isn't anything new or artistic in this.
The material in the book is very basic logic and reasoning. Maybe it's meant to be an old sort of "Logic for Dummies," but because of all the errors, I started to think it is more like "Logic by Dummies." The only reason I persisted in reading it is because I didn't want to have two "did not finish" books in a row. Also, I wanted to be able to write a review and I don't rate what I don't finish. Thankfully, it's a quick read. I'm giving it one star instead of none only because the basic principles of logic and reasoning are correct.
I do not recommend this edition of this book. I'm also not inclined to read anything else by W.W. Atkinson. I didn't find out who published this edition. Whoever it is, I don't want to read any other of their Kindle books.
May 19, 2022
PREACH!
March 28, 2024
I don't think there is any other book that has impacted me as much as this book has. The flow and the level of understanding the book provides are amazing. It gives the reader many eureka moments. I remember reading this book and feeling all the butterflies as this was the first time I deeply understood the meaning of abstraction. A highly recommended book.
April 1, 2023
Theoretical!!! Enjoyed understanding of the behind the scenes of logic formation and reasoning.
February 9, 2025
Teaching this assumptive stupidity is dangerous, not logic. Pompous wording, weird fluff, waste of my time.
February 8, 2025
tips: take notes for every word that comes up.
December 6, 2015
This books helps to strategize thinking based on logic and analogies. In my case, the rules are highly applicable for establishing hypothesis, design of experiments, and inferring conclusions. The same will also be adopted for presentations & writing scientific articles. So far, I have been doing it based on intuition but having well established theories with strong reasoning behind it, definitely helping with the level of confidence I feel in my own work.
June 26, 2014
Great book for understanding the process of logical thinking, by understding the basis of Inductive and Deductive Logical arguments. It's also easy to get online since it's public domain
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews