An encyclopedist of the dark ages: Isidore of SevilleBrehaut, Ernest
History
An encyclopedist of the dark ages: Isidore of Seville
Brehaut, Ernest
Isidore, of Seville, Saint, -636; Thesis (Ph. D.)
12. To the second formula belong four modes....
16. To the third formula belong six modes.
22. Let him who desires to understand fully these formulas of
the categorical syllogisms read the book entitled _Apuleii
Perihermeniae_, and he will learn matters that are treated with
subtlety.[234] And by their clearness and well-weighed character
they will introduce the reader advantageously with God’s help to
great paths of understanding. Now let us come to the hypothetical
syllogisms in order.
23–25. The modes of the hypothetical syllogisms that have a
conclusion are seven.... If anyone desires to know more fully the
modes of the hypothetical syllogisms let him read Marius Victorinus’
book entitled _De Syllogismis Hypotheticis_.[234]
[234] A recommendation copied word for word from Cassiodorus.
26. Next let us approach the topic of dialectical definitions, which
have such surpassing worth that they may rightly be called the clear
manifestations of speech, and in a sense the guides to expression.
Chapter 29. On the division of definitions, abbreviated from the book
of Marius Victorinus.
1. The definition of the philosophers is that which in describing
things sets forth what the thing in itself is—not, of what sort it
is—and how it ought to be made up of its parts. For it is a brief
statement separating the nature of each thing from its class, and
marking it off by its peculiar meaning. Definitions are divided
into fifteen sorts. The first kind of definition is the substantial
(οὐσιώδης), which is named definition in the proper and true
sense, as, for example, _Est homo animal rationale, mortale, risus
disciplinaeque capax_. This definition descends through species and
differences and comes to the property, and expresses most fully what
man is.
16. Now let us come to the _topica_, which are the seats of
arguments, the fountains of ideas, and the sources of speech.
Chapter 30. On the topics.
1. _Topica_ is the science of finding arguments. The division
of the _topica_ or the _loci_ from which arguments are derived
is three-fold. For some inhere in the very thing that is under
discussion; there are others, called _affecta_ (closely connected),
which are known to be derived in a certain sense from other things;
others, which are taken from outside [the subject]....
18. It is clearly a wonderful thing that whatever the nimbleness and
variety of the human mind could discover, searching for ideas in
different cases, could have been gathered into unity; that free and
spontaneous intelligence is limited. For wherever it turns, whatever
thoughts it enters on, the mind must fall upon some of those that
have been described.
BOOK III
ON THE FOUR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES
ON ARITHMETIC
INTRODUCTION
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