Logic for Dogs

In March 1615 His Majesty King James the VI of Scotland and I of England participated in a debate concerning the use of logic by dogs. The debate was one of several entertainments provided for the King during a visit to the University of Cambridge. At first glance, this event might seem wholly frivolous. Certainly the King’s enthusiasm for hunting played a part in the choice of topic. But King James was no idle, anti-intellectual prince. He had assembled a hothouse of Protestant theologians to produce the English Bible that still bears his name, and his own collected works were to appear the following year. Moreover, as we shall see, the arguments rehearsed before King James echo down the history of logic, from antiquity to the twenty-first century.