The Ladder of the Sciences, Part 1: Knowledge, Doubt and the Four Questions (Sullam al-ʿUlūm )

Part 1 of 6. A complete reading of Sullam al-ʿUlūm, "The Ladder of the Sciences", the logic primer by Muḥibb Allāh al-Bihārī (d. 1119/1707) that became a standard text of the madrasa curriculum of the subcontinent, read phrase by phrase with the glosses Ḍiyāʾ al-Nujūm, "The Light of the Stars", by Muḥammad Ibrāhīm al-Balyāwī of Dār al-ʿUlūm Deoband (d. 1387/1967). Technical terms are explained in plain English as they come. The Arabic is on screen throughout, with real pages of the book. This part covers the text from the opening to the three kinds of verbal signification. The opening of the Sullam packs a whole introduction to logic into four pages: a praise of God written in logic's own vocabulary; a definition of knowledge and its split into conception and assent; a famous puzzle about that split and the author's own solution; why neither everything nor nothing can be obvious; Meno's puzzle about inquiry; why a rule for thinking is needed and what logic studies; the four "mother questions"; why conceptions come first and the sentence that seems to refute itself; and the kinds of signification, ending with whole, part and implication. Al-Balyāwī's glosses supply the examples, the names behind the views, and the debates. Chapters 0:00 A Ladder and a Light 1:02 The Qāḍī from Bihār 2:03 The Commentator from Ballia 2:54 Praise Made of Logic 4:11 No Proof Above Him 5:10 The Best Assent 6:09 Like the Sun Among the Stars 7:03 Clearer Than Any Definition 8:03 Thirteen Answers 9:07 Two Kinds of Knowing 10:16 Nothing Is Off-Limits 11:08 The Famous Doubt 12:02 The Author's Own Answer 12:59 Neither All Obvious Nor All Hidden 14:01 The Circle and the Endless Chain 14:55 Doubling the Infinite 15:46 Separate Roads 16:45 The Puzzle Put to Socrates 17:34 Known by One Face 18:30 Why We Need a Rule 19:22 What Logic Studies 20:31 Four Mother Questions 21:31 Which, and Whether 22:30 Two Kinds of Because 23:25 Streams from a Garden 24:14 Conceptions Come First 25:06 A Sentence That Judges Itself 26:00 Six Ways a Thing Points 27:00 Civil by Nature 27:59 Words for Meanings Themselves 28:53 Whole, Part, and Beyond 29:48 Is Implication Banned from Science? 30:46 The First Rungs Sources • Muḥibb Allāh al-Bihārī, «سلم العلوم (في علم المنطق)», ed. ʿAbd al-Naṣīr Aḥmad al-Shāfiʿī al-Malībārī: the text, printed pp. 107–110. • «سلم العلوم مع حاشية ضياء النجوم», glosses by Muḥammad Ibrāhīm al-Balyāwī (Karachi: Maktabat al-Bushrā, 1443/2022): printed pp. 3–77.