An introductory text-book of logic - Mellone, Sydney - Rare Books at ...

THE GENERAL AIM OF LOGIC. 5
our own day, although the tradition has departed from
the spirit of the Aristotelian doctrine, and has made
additions to its form. Very
improvements.
few of the additions are
Aristotle has no one name for all the investigations of
the Organon^ This title is in one sense admissible, for
it indicates the position of Logic in treating thought as the
instrument (opyavov) which all the sciences use. But in
another sense the title is a very unfortunate one, suggesting
to Francis Bacon, for example the absurd notion that
Logic aims at supplying tools for making discoveries, instead
of analysing the methods of reasoning. Aristotle seems
to have worked at Rhetoric first of all ; through his study
of the means of expressing political, judicial, and disputa
tious argumentation, he was led to examine the principles
of controversial discussion ; then he passed on to examine
inference as such, and especially inference as in Demonstra
tive Science.
In the Middle Age Aristotle s logical writings were
known only through imperfect translations. On these
some of the most powerful and subtle intellects of the
time set themselves to work, and built up a Logic which,
though it was accurate and systematic, was also abstract
and artificially formal in the extreme. This result was
natural ;
investigation ;
for the spirit of the age left no room for original
its motto was
"
Bring your
beliefs into
harmony with traditional authority." With the Renais
"
Bring all
beliefs into harmony with the facts of
"
Nature ; and
sance, a new spirit arose, whose motto was
when observation of Nature and her laws became a pre
vailing pursuit, the deficiency, for this purpose, of the
formal Logic of mediaeval writers was perceived, and the
need was felt of some principles to regulate the observa-
1 Aristotle s own name for
any, is TO. a.va.\vriK<i (Analytics).
"
logical so inquiries," far as he has