Reformed Logic / A System Based on Berkeley's Philosophy with an Entirely New Method of Dialectic

by D. B. McLachlan

I.
Some obj. which answer	are beautiful
Many flowers are beaut.	N. C.

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'None but Whites are civilised; the ancient Germans were Whites; therefore they were civilised.'

I.
All civilised nations	are Whites
Anc. Ger. were Wh.	N. C.

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'Wilkes was a favourite with the populace; he who is a favourite with the populace must understand how to manage them; he who understands how to manage them must be well acquainted with their character; he who is well acquainted with their character must hold them in contempt; therefore Wilkes must have held the populace in contempt.'

Favourites	must kn. how to manage	He who kn. how to manage	must be acquainted	He who is acq.	must despise
W. was a fav.	he knew how to man.	W. knew	he was acq.	W. was acq.	he must have desp.

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'Something has existed from eternity. For since something now is, it is manifest that something always was. Otherwise the things that now are must have risen out of nothing, absolutely and without cause. Which is a plain contradiction in terms. For to say a thing is produced, and yet that there is no cause at all of that production, is to say that something is effected when it is effected by nothing, that is, at the same time when it is not effected at all. Whatever exists has a cause of its existence, either in the necessity of its own nature, and then it must have been of itself eternal: or in the will of some other being, and then that other being must, at least in the order of nature and causality, have existed before it.'

In this theorem we have a case—'Something is'; and a conclusion—'Something has existed from eternity.' The reasoner seeks a credible or conceivable precedent by which to connect that conclusion with the case.