Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.77 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.77
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Symbolical argument is a combination of full argument and mood; e.g. “If Plato is alive, he breathes; but the first is true, therefore the second is true.” This mode of argument was introduced in order that when dealing with long complex arguments we should not have to repeat the minor premiss, if it be long, and then state the conclusion, but may arrive at the conclusion as concisely as possible: if A, then B. Of arguments some are conclusive, others inconclusive. Inconclusive are such that the contradictory of the conclusion is not incompatible with combination of the premisses, as in the following: “If it is day, it is light; but it is day, therefore Dion walks.”
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.77 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.77
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, tr. R. D. Hicks (Loeb, 1925). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesIntroduces a shorthand form of argument that avoids repeating long premises, and distinguishes conclusive arguments from inconclusive ones, in which the opposite of the conclusion does not clash with the premises. Logic terminology.
Older wording
- “Symbolical argument”
- — a combined form that uses letters or placeholders for premises
- “inconclusive”
- — not proving the conclusion
- “premisses”
- — the statements an argument starts from
Themes and situations
- Judgements and impressions
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