Ars Brevis

bullet1 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.