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Full Idea
The examination must be carried on and begin from the primary classes and then go on step by step until further division is impossible.
Gist of Idea
Begin examination with basics, and subdivide till you can go no further
Source
Aristotle (Topics [c.331 BCE], 109b17)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Posterior Analytics and Topica', ed/tr. Tredennick,H/Forster,ES [Harvard 1960], p.335
A Reaction
This is a good slogan for the analytic approach to thought. I take Aristotle (or possibly Socrates) to be the father of analysis, not Frege (though see Idea 9840). (He may be thinking of the tableau method of proof).
Related Idea
Idea 9840 Frege initiated linguistic philosophy, studying number through the sense of sentences [Frege, by Dummett]