Logic and Theory of Knowledge 121
For the premiss is "if it is day, it is light"; the additional statement is
"it is day"; and the conclusion is "therefore, it is light". A mode is a
sort of schema for an argument, such as this:
If the first, the second.
But the first.
Therefore, the second.- An argument-mode is what is compounded of both [the argument
and the schema], for example,
If Plato is alive, Plato breathes.
But the first.
Therefore, the second.The argument-mode was added in order to avoid having to repeat the
long additional statement and the conclusion in a somewhat lengthy series
of arguments, so that the conclusion can be given briefly: The first;
therefore, the second.
Of arguments, some are non-conclusive, others are conclusive. Non-
conclusive are those where the opposite of the conclusion is not in conflict
with the conjunction of the premisses, for example, arguments like this:
If it is day, it is light.
It is day.
Therefore, Dion is walking.- Of conclusive arguments, some are called conclusive homonymously
with the genus. Others are syllogistic. Syllogistic arguments, then, are
those which are either indemonstrable or reducible to the indemonstrables
by one or more of the themata, for example, ones like this:^16
If Dion is walking, <Dion is moving.
But Dion is walking.>
Dion is, therefore, moving.Those conclusive in the specific sense are ones which reach a [valid]
conclusion non-syllogistically, for example, ones like this:
- The textual supplement is by Hicks.