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Means and Inftruments which Religion it felf makes use of in the Defence and Explication of its Doctrines; as we shall fee in the Clofe of this Difcourfe.

Thefe are the Reflections that may be made upon the Ufe of Philofophy in General. Let us proceed to take a View of its Parts as they ftand diftinctly from each other.

RE

408

REFLECTIONS

UPON

LOGICK

Orat.

L

I.

Ogick may be truly ftil'd the firft Ray of Evidence, the first Stroke of Method that appears in the Conduct of Knowledge: As being imploy'd in forming the JudgArs vera ment, which is the ordinary Inftrument that falfa the Mind of Man makes ufe of, to reason dijudican- justly upon Things, and to pafs an exact Dif di Cic. de cernment between Truth and Falfhood, by diDialectica viding Simples from Compounds, and Continveri & gents from Neceffaries. And as this Art is the falfi dif- Source and Fountain of all our Certainty, there ccptatrix judex. can be little Assurance in our Reasonings withCic. Qu. out its Support and Aid. The Bufinefs of Logick therefore is, to assist us in the Discovery of Truth, and to make us feel the Force of Reafon. But this excellent Rule affum'd a Chara&ter of Falfhood from the Genius of those that first imploy'd it. This pure and uncorrupted Light was foon vitiated and obfcur'd; and Human Reafon which had fubmitted to its Guidance, was led aftray by its Abufe. Thus Logick, which was invented to fix and rectifie the Understanding, help'd to feduce and pervert it; and the first

Acad.

Pro

Precepts that were given to lead Men to Knowledge, were but fo many Snares to betray them into Error. For as nothing is more Secret than Thought, fo Logick was at firft nothing else but an Art of variously disguifing our Thoughts; as appears from the Hiftory of its Rife and Fortune in the World.

II.

The first Philofophers, who pra@is'd Reafon more than Argument, were fo entirely bent on the Study of Nature, as to have little regard to Logical Speculations: They reafon'd upon their own Experience, and yet were Strangers to the Art and Method of Reasoning. In Pythagoras's platonem School, there was no Logick but Authority; no à PhythaAppeal from what he pleas'd to dictate. In-goricis indeed Apuleius pretends, that Plato borrow'd tellectuahis firft Draught of Logick from the Pythago-fopbie" reans. But Ariftotle affures us, that tho' we meet with good and just Definitions in the Writings cepise. of that Sect, yet Logick was then unknown, De Phil. and its Rules uncultivated. Zeno Eleates, a Phi- Plat. lofopher of a very quick and fubtile Genius, phyf

lem Philos

partem ac

In Meta

Parm.

was the first who found out that natural Train of Principles and Confequences in Discourse, which he form'd into a regular Art: As appears from the Testimony of Plato,confirm'd by Proclus. Thus it is plain, that the Sum of Zeno's Logick In Parwas to obferve the Dependence and Connexion men. that Propofitions bear to each other, and accor- Interp. dingly to range them in their natural Order. This was his Way; he explain'd himself only in Dialogue, and Introduc'd two or more Perfons, who by their Course of Questions and Answers, reafon'd methodically upon all Subjects: And 'twas from this Method of Dialogue, that he gave his new invented Art the Name of Dialetica; and this put a Period to the more ancient Ee Way

Λύσσαν ορισμό.

Way of teaching Philofophy in Verfe. For it was found very practicable in these Dialogues to preferve an Air of Freedom and Pleasantry, without the leaft Prejudice to what was folid and substantial. Plato follow'd this Manner, as the fittest for Inftruction: The Custom being, for the Master to interrogate the Scholar, and to make the Scholar reply, according to his Capacity. Zeno, a great Mafter of Subtilty, did but perplex and embarrass this Method, by giving it too nice and captious an Air. Protagoras, Scholar to Zeno, as Zeno had been to Democritus, ftill refin'd upon it, and carried it farther into Sophistry. For having nothing folid in his Genius, he ftudied to be fubtile, and took up with the Profeffion of a Sophift, not being able to attain to that of a Philofopher. Ariftotle informs us, that his Business was to prepare common Places of Questions and Anfwers, and by this Knack to furprize and non-plus his Hearers. Simon the famous Artifan of Athens, fo often mention'd in Socrates's Difcourfe, together with his Friend Crito, are reported by Diogenes Laertius to have been both eminent Logicians, and both of Zeno's School.

II.

Euclid of Megara, ftill applied himself to the farther improving and fharpening of Logical Subtilty, and introduc'd a greater Warmth of Difcourfe, a more lively and vehement Manner of Debate. Nay, he carried this to fuch an Extreme, as to give Occafion to Timon to reproach Ramus him as having poffefs'd the People of Megara, Dialect. with a Madness of Difputing, by teaching them this fophiftical and crafty Method, which Socra tes condemn'd, as void of Sincerity. It was this Euclid and his Scholar Eubulides, that invented thofe Sophifms, which Diogenes Laertius men

tions, and which were afterwards fo much celebrated in the Schools; tho' after all, they have nothing real in them, but their Acuteness; fuch as the Dilemma, the Argumentum cornutum, the Electra, the Sorites, the famous Quaftiones Megarenfes, of which Plutarch speaks; together with all that Chicane of Difpute, that brought Logick under Contempt at Athens, and obliged Socrates to expofe and ridicule it, in his Dif courses against the Sophifts, in order to the Undeceiving the Minds of the People. From the fame Euclid, Demofthenes learnt his Art of Dilemma, and those preffing ways of Addrefs, which rendred him fo forcible in his Character of Eloquence. Plato's Logick, which is the fame with that of Socrates, confifts more in Examples than in Precepts: It has nothing peculiar as to the dif putative Part, of which Socrates had but a very mean Opinion: Tho' both the one and the eft ars dif Ita falta other of thofe great Men establish'd the firft ferendi Criterion of Truth in the Senfes; yet they quam mimaintain'd that the Understanding was ftill the nimè profupreme Judge, and as fuch ought to determine crates. our Affent; because it was this alone, that did Cic. Qu. not reft in the Surface, but pierced to the bottom Acad. of Things, which they fuppos'd to be in it felf eternal and immutable; This they call'd the Idea, Mentem and fix'd it as the only Rule and Standard of our volebant Conceptions. And because in their Notion, effe rerum the Soul of Man was but a little Spark of the judicem ; univerfal Soul of the World, and a Ray of the cenfebant Divinity; they taught, that this divine Particle cui credewhile united to its Principle, the great Fountain retur quia of Light, was ignorant of nothing; but that up- cerneret on its entrance into the Body, it contracted fuch fer fimplex id quod ef

babat So

idoneam

unius mode

quale effet, banc illi ideam appellabant. Id. ibid.

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an

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