CHAPTER III 

 General Methods 



VIII. Methods of Reasoning. 



Logic has been defined as the art of directing the 

 reason aright in acquiring the knowledge of things, 

 for the instruction both of ourselves and others. In 

 this is involved (a) objects, (6) thought, (c) language. 

 In the presence of an object we may (a) simply app: > 

 hend it, (6) then form a judgment about it, and (c) 

 reason about it and talk about it. To apprehend is 

 simply to be aware; to form a judgment is to compare 

 with other things, and to reason or converse about it 

 is to express the activity of the mind in symbols or 

 terms combined into sentences or propositions. The 

 terms may be: (a) particular terms, (&) general terms. 

 The first denotes only a single object, the latter is 

 applicable to any one or all of any indefinite number of 

 objects. This is what is meant by the expressions 

 general and particular. 



i. THE DEDUCTIVE METHOD is the method of 

 reasoning from the general to the particular, thus: 

 All frogs croak; this animal is a frog; therefore this 

 animal croaks. Or, all fungi are plants; this is a 

 fungus; therefore this is a plant. 



The general is supposed to contain all the particu- 

 lars; and, consequently, it is assumed that, knowing 

 the general, the particular can be inferred. Hence, 

 also, the expression, from the abstract to the concrete. 



The disadvantage of this deductive method lies in 

 the fact that, in many cases, we may be led by our 



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