  The question of the origins of logic as a formal discipline is of special
interest to the historian of physics since it represents a turning inward to
examine the very nature of reasoning and the relationship between thought and
reality. In the West, Aristotle (384-322 BCE) is generally credited with the
formalization of the tradition of logic and also with the development of early
physics. In India, the Rigveda itself in the hymn 10.129 suggests the
beginnings of the representation of reality in terms of various logical
divisions that were later represented formally as the four circles of: "A",
"not A", ":A and not A", and "not A and not not A''. According to Puranic
accounts, Medhatithi Gautama and Aksapada Gautama (or Gotama), which are
perhaps two variant names for the author of the early formal text on Indian
logic, belonged to about 550 BCE. The Greek and the Indian traditions seem to
provide the earliest formal representations of logic, and in this article we
ask if they influenced each other. We are also interested in the scope of early
logic, since this gives an idea to us of the way early thinkers thought about
nature and change. We will show that Greek and Indian logical traditions have
much that is distinctive and unique and that they must have emerged
independently.
