THE ORDER OF PREMISES. 131 



The mechanical performance of logical inference affords 

 a demonstration both of the truth of Boole's results and 

 of the mistaken nature of his mode of deducing them. 

 Conclusions which he could only obtain by pages of 

 intricate calculation, are exhibited by the machine after 

 one or two minutes of manipulation. And not only are 

 those conclusions easily reached, but they are demon- 

 stratively true, because every step of the process involves 

 nothing more obscure that the Laws of Thought. 



The Order of Premises. 



Before quitting the subject of deductive reasoning, I 

 may remark that the order in which the premises of 

 an argument, or any propositions whatsoever, are placed, 

 is a matter of logical indifference. Much discussion has 

 taken place at various times concerning the arrangement 

 of the premises of a syllogism ; and it has been generally 

 held, in accordance with the opinion of Aristotle, that 

 the so-called major premise, containing the major term, 

 or the predicate of the conclusion, should stand first. 

 This distinction however falls to the ground in our system, 

 since the proposition is reduced to an identical form in 

 which there is no distinction of subject and predicate. 

 In a strictly logical and philosophic point of view the 

 order of statement is wholly devoid of significance. The 

 premises are simultaneously coexistent, and are not related 

 to each other according to any of the properties of space 

 or time. Just as the qualities of the same object are 

 neither before nor after each other in nature (p. 40), 

 and are only thought of in some one order owing to 

 our limited capacity of mind, so the premises of an 

 argument are neither before nor after each other, and 

 are only thought of in succession because the mind can- 

 not grasp many ideas at once. The logical combinations 



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