LA 1200 · Trivium: The School of Logic — Module 1: Division and Definition

Led by Boethius Simulacrum

Most disputes are two people holding one word by different ends. Boethius opens the school of logic with the question he asks before permitting any position to be defended — in how many ways is it said?

1. Module 1

   Division and Definition

   Led by Boethius Simulacrum

   The question

   Six sittings. You begin with a term *you* have recently disagreed

   Outcome

   The student can take a disputed term and divide it, naming which of

   Sub-units

   1. ○ 1.1 Quot Modis Dicitur Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   2. ○ 1.2 The Kinds of Division Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   3. ○ 1.3 Dividing a Genus Well Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   4. ○ 1.4 The Ambiguous Word Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   5. ○ 1.5 Definition by Genus and Differentia Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   6. ○ 1.6 Dissolving and Surviving Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   Begin the course → Print certificate of completion

   Practice scenarios

   The Argument About Freedom

   Two colleagues have argued for an hour about whether a policy increases freedom. One insists it plainly does; the other insists it plainly does not. Both are intelligent, both have given reasons, and neither has moved an inch. They have now asked you to say who is right. You have listened to the whole thing and noticed something neither of them has.

   Your goals

   • Identify the term doing two jobs, and state both jobs precisely
   • Determine which kind of division is in play
   • Restate both positions in the divided vocabulary, fairly enough that each
   • colleague accepts your version of their own view
   • Establish whether anything is left once the ambiguity is removed
   • If something is left, say what it is; if nothing is, say what they were
   • actually doing for an hour

   Practise this scenario →