§ 832. Aristotle himself only goes so far as the first step in the
division of fallacies, being content to class them according as they
are in the language or outside of it. After that he proceeds at once
to enumerate the infimæ species under each of the two main heads. We
shall presently imitate this procedure for reasons of expediency. For
the whole phraseology of the subject is derived from Aristotle's
treatise on Sophistical Refutations, and we must either keep to his
method or break away from tradition altogether. Sufficient confusion
has already arisen from retaining Aristotle's language while
neglecting his meaning.
§ 833. Modern writers on logic do not approach fallacies from the same
point of view as Aristotle. Their object is to discover the most
fertile sources of error in solitary reasoning; his was to enumerate
the various tricks of refutation which could be employed by a sophist
in controversy. Aristotle's classification is an appendix to the Art
of Dialectic.
§ 834. Another cause of confusion in this part of logic is the
identification of Aristotle's two-fold division of fallacies, commonly
known under the titles of In dictione and Extra diotionem, with the
division into Logical and Material, which is based on quite a
different principle.
§ 835. Aristotle's division perhaps allows an undue importance to
language, in making that the principle of division, and so throwing
formal and material fallacies under a common head. Accordingly another
classification has been adopted, which concentrates attention from the
first upon the process of thought, which ought certainly to be of
primary importance in the eyes of the logician. This classification
is as follows.
§ 836. Whenever in the course of our reasoning we are involved in
error, either the conclusion follows from the premisses or it does
not. If it does not, the fault must lie in the process of reasoning,
and we have then what is called a Logical Fallacy. If, on the other
hand, the conclusion does follow from the premisses, the fault must
lie in the premisses themselves, and we then have what is called a
Material Fallacy. Sometimes, however, the conclusion will appear to
follow from the premisses until the meaning of the terms is examined,
when it will be found that the appearance is deceptive owing to some
ambiguity in the language. Such fallacies as these are, strictly
speaking, non-logical, since the meaning of words is extraneous to the
science which deals with thought. But they are called
Semi-logical. Thus we arrive by a different road at the same three
heads as before, namely, (1) Formal or Purely Logical Fallacies, (2)
Semi-logical Fallacies or Fallacies of Ambiguity, (3) Material
Fallacies.
§ 837. For the sake of distinctness we will place the two divisions
side by side, before we proceed to enumerate the infimae species.
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