Among logicians posterior to Aristotle, the definition given of the
Enthymeme, and supposed to be derived from Aristotle was, that it was
a Syllogism with one of the premisses suppressed--[Greek:
monolê/mmatos]. Sir W. Hamilton has impugned this doctrine, and has
declared the definition to be both absurd in itself, and not
countenanced by Aristotle. (Lectures on Logic, Vol. I. Lect. xx. p.
386, seq.) I think Hamilton is mistaken on this point. (See Mr.
Cope's Introd. to Arist. Rhetoric, p. 103, seq.) Even in the present
chapter Aristotle distinctly alludes to the monolemmatic enunciation
of the Enthymeme as one mode of distinguishing it from a full
Syllogism; and in the Rhetorica he brings out this characteristic
still more forcibly. The distinction is one which belongs to Rhetoric
more than to Logic; the rhetor, in enunciating his premisses, must be
careful not to weary his auditors; he must glance at or omit reasons
that are familiar to them; logical fulness and accuracy would be
inconsistent with his purpose. The writers subsequent to Aristotle,
who think much of the rhetorical and little of the logical point of
view, bring out the distinction yet more forcibly. But the rhetorical
mode of stating premisses is often not so much an omission either of
major or minor, as a confused blending or packing up of both into
one.]
Aristotle concludes his Analytica Priora by applying this doctrine of
Signs to determine the limits within which Physiognomy as a science
is practicable. The basis upon which it rests is this general fact or
postulate: That in all natural affections of the animal, bodily
changes and mental changes accompany each other. The former,
therefore, may become signs or proofs of the latter,[79] if, in each
class of animals, we can discriminate the one specific bodily
phenomenon which attaches to each mental phenomenon. Thus, the lion
is a courageous animal. What is the bodily sign accompanying a
courageous disposition? It is (we assume here) the having extremities
of great size. This belongs to all lions, as a _proprium_; in the
sense that, though it may or does belong also to some individuals of
other races (as men), it does not belong to any other entire race.
Physiognomy as a science will, then, be possible, if we can find
races of animals which have only one characteristic mental attribute,
and if we can discover what is the physical attribute correlating
with it.[80] But the difficulties are greater when the same race has
two characteristic mental attributes (_e.g._ lions are both
courageous and generous), each with its correlative physical
attribute; for how can we tell which belongs to which? We have then
to study individuals of other races possessing one of these
attributes without the other; thus, if we find that courageous men,
who are not generous, agree in having large extremities, we may infer
that this last circumstance is, in the lion, the correlative mark of
his courage and not of his generosity.
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