Logic (1909) by Richard F. Clarke
Excerpt from the introduction
When Scholastic Philosophy ceased to be the subject of systematic study in Protestant Univer- sitieSy and was regarded as possessing a historical rather than scientific interest, there was one branch of it that was treated with less dishonour than the rest. In Ethics and Metaphysics, in Psychology and Natural Theology, the principles handed down by a tradition unbroken for centuries came to be looked upon -as an antique curiosity or as merely illustrating the development of human progress and human thought. These sciences were either set aside as things of the past, consisting of fine-spun subtleties of no practical value or else they were reconstructed on an entirely new basis. But with Logic it was different. Its underlying principles and its received method were not so closely and obviously interlaced with the discarded systems of theology.
It admitted of bringing more easily brought into apparent harmony with the doctrines of the Reformation because it had not the same direct bearing on Catholic dogma. It was, moreover, far less formidable to the ordinary student. Those who had no stomach for the Science of Being were nevertheless quite able to acquire a certain moderate acquaintance with the Science and the Laws of Thought. Men chopped Logic harmlessly, and the Logic they chopped was the traditional Logic of the Schoolmen, with some slight modifications.
The textbook of Dean Aldrich, which has not yet disappeared from Oxford, is medieval in its phraseology and its method; medieval, too, in its principles, except where an occasional inconsistency has crept in unawares from the new learning. It still talks of " second intentions," and assumes the - existence of an Infima Species, and has throughout the wholesome flavour of the moderate realism of sound philosophy. The modern school of Logic departs from the ancient From the very first, as the reader will see as he studies the following pages. The very foundations are different. The Principle of Contradiction is in the Plamiltonian system subordinated to that of Identity, while Stuart Mill goes still further astray, and the Hegelians set it altogether aside. The account given by these various schools of the process of intellectual apprehension by which the idea or general notion is arrived at is one that leads to an utter scepticism.
It admitted of bringing more easily brought into apparent harmony with the doctrines of the Reformation because it had not the same direct bearing on Catholic dogma. It was, moreover, far less formidable to the ordinary student. Those who had no stomach for the Science of Being were nevertheless quite able to acquire a certain moderate acquaintance with the Science and the Laws of Thought. Men chopped Logic harmlessly, and the Logic they chopped was the traditional Logic of the Schoolmen, with some slight modifications.
The textbook of Dean Aldrich, which has not yet disappeared from Oxford, is medieval in its phraseology and its method; medieval, too, in its principles, except where an occasional inconsistency has crept in unawares from the new learning. It still talks of " second intentions," and assumes the - existence of an Infima Species, and has throughout the wholesome flavour of the moderate realism of sound philosophy. The modern school of Logic departs from the ancient From the very first, as the reader will see as he studies the following pages. The very foundations are different. The Principle of Contradiction is in the Plamiltonian system subordinated to that of Identity, while Stuart Mill goes still further astray, and the Hegelians set it altogether aside. The account given by these various schools of the process of intellectual apprehension by which the idea or general notion is arrived at is one that leads to an utter scepticism.
Contents
INTRODUCTION.
Chapter I. — The Province of Logic ..... i
II.— The Definition of Logic ..... 15
III. — The Foundations of Logic ..... 29
I. The Principle of Contradiction ..... 33
II. The Principle of Identity ..... 42
IV. — The Foundations of Logic (continued) ..... 50
V. — The Foundations of Logic (continued) ..... 71
III. The Principle of Causation ..... 72
IV. The Principle of Excluded Middle ..... 79
VI. — The Three Operations of Thought ..... 92
PART I. - OF SIMPLE APPREHENSION OR CONCEPTION.
Simple Apprehension ..... 97
VII. — Simple Apprehension {continued). Modern Errors respecting it ..... 121
VIII. — The Doctrine of Universals ..... 140
IX. — The Heads of Predicables ..... 163
X. — Definition ..... 193
XI.— Division ..... 225
PART II.-OF JUDGMENT OR ASSENT.
Chapter I. — Judgment ..... 245
Divisions of Judgment ..... 250
II.— Propositions, their Nature and Divisions ..... 261
Divisions of Propositions ..... 266
III. — Import of Propositions. Various kinds of Propositions ..... 2S0
IV. — The Opposition and Conversion of Propositions ..... 293
PART III — OF REASONING OR ARGUMENT.
Chapter I. — Reasoning ..... 305
II. — The Syllogism and its Laws ..... 313
Canons of the Syllogism ..... 315
Dictum de omni et nullo ..... 316
General Rules of the Syllogism ..... 316
III. — The Figures of the Syllogism. Reduction ..... 324
Rules of the First Figure ..... 332
Rules of the Second Figure ..... 333
Rules of the Third Figure ..... 334
Rules of the Fourth Figure ..... 335
Reduction ..... 339
IV. — Various kinds of Syllogisms ..... 348
Other Variations of the Syllogism ..... 359
V. — Formal Induction ..... 364
VI. — Material induction ..... 376
Method of Agreement ..... 389
Method of Difference ..... 390
Method of Concomitant Variations ..... 393
Method of Residues ..... 398
Chapter VII. — Example and Analogy ..... 402
Example ..... 403
Analogy ..... 407
VIII. — The Matter of the Syllogism ..... 412
I. Demonstrative Syllogisms ..... 419
II. Probable Syllogisms ..... 424
IX. — Fallacies ..... 432
I. Fallacies of language ..... 434
II. Fallacies outside Language ..... 445
III. — Method and its Laws ..... 461
APPENDIX.
The Scholastic Method ..... 475
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