20 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



different from the mode of argument applicable to the other. 

 They are based on different principles and governed by different 

 methods; and Miss Stebbing calmly converts my argument from 

 a supposition into a material argument ; she does not seem 

 conscious that the alteration makes the slightest difference ; and 

 then she accuses me of ignorance of Logic ! I admit that I am 

 only a novice, but I do know better than that. 



But this is not the worst. Logicians are so in the habit ol 

 garb — altering statements to bring them into "logical form," that 

 they are quite indifferent, and I imagine insensible also, to the 

 serious alterations of meaning that they produce in the process. 

 "Logical form" is such a passion with them that beside it 

 meaning becomes insignificant, and of no account. I put the 

 supposition, " If the bed contains nothing but geraniums and 



violas " Miss Stebbing in effect tells me, "You don't know 



how to express your meaning. What you ought to say is, 

 'All the flowers in the bed are geraniums and violas.'" I beg 

 your pardon, Miss Stebbing. I do not pretend to any greater 

 knowledge of horticulture than of logic, but I have enough to 

 know that what you say is botanically impossible. No flower 

 can be both a geranium and a viola. No single one of them can 

 answer your description ; and if not one, then a fortiori not all. 

 " Logical form " may be a worthy object of worship, but, not 

 being a logician, I prefer accuracy of statement. 



Miss Stebbing treats my other arguments with the same 

 servility to logical form and the same breezy indifference to 

 meaning. I commented adversely upon the uniform practice 

 of logic for two thousand years of keeping the middle term out 

 of the conclusion, and showed by an instance that it is possible, 

 and may be very useful, to get the middle term into the con- 

 clusion. Miss Stebbing meets this by garb — altering the major 

 premiss, altering the minor premiss, and so arriving at a 

 conclusion from which the middle term is omitted. I said in my 

 article that logicians are not better but worse reasoners than 

 other people, and I think this is a case in point. Miss Stebbing 

 is a person of exceptional mental power. In spite of her logical 

 training, she always quotes me correctly. If her reasoning 

 power had not been corroded and attenuated by the study of 

 logic, she would, I am sure, have made some great achievement, 

 but being a logician, how does she argue? I say that it is 

 sometimes useful to do a certain thing, and I give an instance in 



