The History and Future of Logic Puzzles
This chapter first considers the history of logic puzzles through the contributions of Lewis Carroll and Raymond Smullyan. These two figures are united not only by their love of logic, but also by their conviction that puzzles provide an accessible gateway into the deep ideas of the subject. Their puzzles depend on what philosophers typically refer to as “classical logic.” Although mathematical historians generally credit Aristotle with being the first to undertake the study of logic in a systematic manner, the first to present logic explicitly for recreational purposes was Carroll. Smullyan is the most significant among the authors who have explored the recreational possibilities of propositional logic. The remainder of the chapter considers a possible future development of logic puzzles by investigating puzzles based on nonclassical logics.