other than syllogism are imperfect; that analogical inference is
rhetorical induction; and that induction, through the necessary
preliminary of syllogism and the sole process of ascent from sense,
memory and experience to the principles of science, is itself neither
reasoning nor science. To be perfect he thought that all inference must
be reduced to syllogism of the first figure, which he regarded as the
specially scientific inference. Accordingly, the syllogism appeared to
him to be the rational process ([Greek: meta logou]), and the
demonstrative syllogism from inductively discovered principles to be
science ([Greek: epistêmê]). Hence, without his saying it in so many
words, Aristotle's logic perforce became a logic of deductive reasoning,
or syllogism. As it happened this deductive tendency helped the
development of logic. The obscurer premises of analogy and induction,
together with the paucity of experience and the backward state of
physical science in Aristotle's time would have baffled even his
analytical genius. On the other hand, the demonstrations of mathematical
sciences of his time, and the logical forms of deduction evinced in
Plato's dialogues, provided him with admirable examples of deduction,
which is also the inference most capable of analysis. Aristotle's
analysis of the syllogism showed man how to advance by combining his
thoughts in trains of deductive reasoning. Nevertheless, the wider
question remained for logic: what is the nature of all inference, and
the special form of each of its three main processes?
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