LOGIC: A REJOINDER TO MISS STEBBING 21 



which the useful thing is done. Miss Stebbing refutes this by 

 showing that in another instance it is quite possible not to do 

 that useful thing. I know it is. The possibility of avoiding 

 useful things by employing logical methods is illimitable. In 

 my New Logic I have given hundreds of instances of the inability 

 of the old logic to reach conclusions that are both useful and 

 obvious. In this very case, I could have left the middle term 

 out of the conclusion of my own argument if I had wanted to. 

 But I didn't. I wanted to get it in. It is useful. It gives me 

 information that I want, information that Miss Stebbing's 

 argument does not give, and that no logical argument can give 

 from the information in my possession. Miss Stebbing says, in 

 effect, that I have no right to my information because the 

 argument by which I arrived at it is not in logical form. But 

 then you see, Miss Stebbing, I am not a logician, and I do not 

 care a pin whether my argument is in logical form or not. All 

 I care about is whether it is valid, and you do not venture to 

 deny that it is valid, Miss Stebbing. The utmost you can say 

 is that your own conclusion brings out the force of your 

 argument. Perhaps it does, but it does not bring out the force 

 of mine, nor does it give me the conclusion I want, and can get 

 by my own method of reasoning. 



Miss Stebbing does not deny the validity of any of my 

 arguments, her only objection to them is that they are not in 

 logical form, and she kindly tries to put them into logical form 

 for me. But she does not succeed. For my part I do not think 

 the attempt is worth making. The arguments are manifestly and 

 undeniably valid as they stand, and nothing would be gained 

 by perverting them into the cumbrous and clumsy forms of 

 logic, even if it could be done ; but it cannot be done, and 

 Miss Stebbing does not do it. 



As an example of an argument in which the middle term 

 is undistributed I gave the following : 



It Hannibal crossed the Alps, 

 and The part of the Alps that he crossed is impassable for 



elephants ; 

 then He took no elephants across with him. 



The middle term is the Alps, and it is not distributed because 

 it is the predicate of an affirmative premiss, and consequently, 

 although we do in fact refer to the whole class of the Alps, the 



