Click Here for Current Course Information

john.martin@uc.edu

On the one hand,

Petrarch says of the logician that he is:

"a monster....armed with double-edged enthymemes.
If you aim at virtue, avoid this sort of man."

On the other hand,

Saint Augustine says in On Christian Doctrine, 32:

And yet the validity of logical sequences is not a thing devised by men, but is observed and noted by them that they may be able to learn and teach it; for it exists eternally in the reason of things, and has its origin with God. For as the man who narrates the order of events does not himself create that order; and as he who describes the situations of places, or the natures of animals, or roots, or minerals, does not describe the arrangements of man; as he who points out the stars and their movements does not point out anything that he himself or any other man has ordained; in the same way he who says, 'when the consequence is false, the antecedent must be true,' says what is most true; but he does not himself make it so, he only points out that it is so.

Dialectic among the Seven Liberal Arts

Nicolà Pisano, Siena Cathedral, 1266

_