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2 ideas
| 8084 | Syllogisms are verbal fencing, not discovery [Locke] |
| Full Idea: Syllogisms are useless for discovery, and serve only for verbal fencing. | |
| From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694]), quoted by Keith Devlin - Goodbye Descartes Ch.3 | |
| A reaction: This illustrates the low status of logic, and the new high status of experimental science, in Locke's time. Locke's seems to miss the point that you can infer new discoveries from old ones. |
| 12572 | Many people can reason well, yet can't make a syllogism [Locke] |
| Full Idea: There are many men that reason exceeding clear and rightly, who know not how to make a syllogism | |
| From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 4.17.04) | |
| A reaction: On the one hand this is just Locke's scepticism about the whole business of Aristotelian logic, but on the other hand it may be a perspicuous observation that logical thought extends far beyond what was catalogued by Aristotle. |