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Ars Brevis | | |
6. Evacuating Figure 3
Part 6
Evacuating the Third Figure
The intellect "evacuates" cameras in the
third figure: in other words, it extracts
whatever it can from each camera by
taking the meanings of the letters and
applying them to the questions at hand,
and thus applies itself to investigation and
discovery. We will give an example of this
process in one camera, and you can
apply the same to the remaining cameras.
The intellect extracts twelve statements
from camera BC by saying:
"Goodness is great; goodness is different;
goodness is concordant; greatness is
good; greatness is different; greatness is
concordant; difference is good; difference
is great; difference is concordant;
concordance is good; concordance is
great; concordance is different."
Thus we evacuate the camera's
statements by making twelve statements
and exchanging subjects with predicates.
Next, the intellect evacuates twelve middle
terms from the camera. They are called
middle terms because they stand between
the subject and predicate with which they
agree generally or specifically. And with
these middle terms the intellect assumes
a stance ready for decisive debate. The
middle terms are extracted from the twelve
statements by saying:
"Whatever is magnified by greatness is
great, but goodness is magnified by
greatness, therefore goodness is great." -
And likewise with the remaining
statements.
After this evacuation is done, the intellect
evacuates the camera with 24 questions
where two questions arise from each
statement, as follows: "Goodness is
great. Is goodness great? What is great
goodness? Goodness is different. Is
goodness different? What is different
goodness? Goodness is concordant. Is
goodness concordant? What is
concordant goodness? Greatness is good.
Is greatness good? What is good
greatness? Greatness is different. Is
greatness different? What is different
greatness? Greatness is concordant. Is
greatness concordant? What is
concordant greatness? Difference is good.
Is difference good? What is good
difference? Difference is great. Is
difference great? What is great difference?
Difference is concordant. Is difference
concordant? What is concordant
difference? Concordance is good. Is
concordance good? What is good
concordance? Concordance is great. Is
Concordance great? What is great
concordance? Concordance is different. Is
concordance different? What is different
concordance?
After evacuating the questions in this way,
the intellect evacuates the camera with
the definitions of goodness and greatness,
and then with the three species of
difference and concordance as shown in
the second figure. Next, it evacuates the
camera with the three species of rule B
and the four species of rule C.
Once this evacuation is done, the intellect
goes on to solve the questions it raised in
the said evacuation according to the
camera's conditions, by making affirmative
and negative statements: thus the intellect
expels doubt from the camera where it
reposes in an assertive, confident stance,
aware that it has reached a high level of
general knowledge and artificial skill and
acquired a great scientific habit.
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