A REPLY TO SOME CHARGES AGAINST LOGIC 411 



since, for example, it leaves no room for Relative Arguments, 

 yet the essential nature of the syllogism is capable of restate- 

 ment in such form as to make it co-extensive with every form 

 of argument. Dr. Keynes, for instance, sums up the valid 

 moods of fig. 1 of the traditional syllogism as 



Rule 

 Case 

 Result, 



and he shows how figs. 2 and 3 may be similarly treated. But 

 this will, on examination, be found to be the common form of 

 all argument. 



To Dr. Mercier's contention that no logician ever uses 

 syllogistic argument in his own reasoning, it may be replied 

 that certainly no logician — or any other writer — states a 

 sustained piece of reasoning in a series of complete syllogisms. 

 But, however complicated the reasoning may be, in so far as 

 it is reasoning and not mere rhetorical embellishment, it can 

 always be broken up into a series of syllogisms, each step in 

 the argument depending for its validity upon the element of 

 identical reference that constitutes the middle term. This 

 syllogistic structure may be no more evident than the 

 anatomical structure of the human body painted by an artist. 

 Yet, just as in the latter case the representation would be faulty 

 if it did not conform to the principles of human anatomy, so the 

 argument is faulty if it does not conform to the conditions of 

 logical reasoning, whether these conditions are explicitly stated 

 or not. 



Dr. Mercier concludes his examination of the syllogism with 

 the remark : " In A New Logic I have surveyed the whole field 

 of Logic, have examined every one of its doctrines, and have 

 shown that every one of them prima facie requires justification 

 as much as the doctrine of the syllogism." Space does not 

 permit the separate examination here of the charges made 

 against these other doctrines, but I hope at a future date to 

 show, by a detailed examination of these charges, that they are 

 equally unfounded. 



There is no doubt that at the present time Logic is under- 

 going a process of reconstruction under the influence of the 

 modern tendency to apply to all science and philosophy the 

 touchstone of practical use. Continuous development in 



