The Ladder of the Sciences, Part 6: The Syllogism, Induction, and the Five Arts | Sullam al-ʿUlūm

Part 6 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 chapter on argument to the last line of the book. Part 5 measured how strongly a statement holds and how it can be turned around. Part 6 climbs the last rungs: argument itself. First the syllogism: what "by itself" rules out; the syllogism of equality, with its pearl, casket and house, and why half of a half is not a half; exceptive and conjunctive syllogisms; the four figures, why the first is "natural" and why al-Fārābī and Ibn Sīnā dropped the fourth; the charge that the first figure is circular; "the void does not exist"; possible premises and Zayd's donkey; syllogisms built of "if", and "if two is odd, it is even". Then induction and the crocodile, the puzzle of two Muslims and one unbeliever in a house, and analogy with the jurists' ways of finding a cause. Last, the five arts: demonstration and certainty, the six kinds of certain premise, "why" and "that" proofs and "the palace of the innī proof", dialectic, rhetoric, poetry and sophistry, and the book's one-line ending. Chapters 0:00 The Top of the Ladder 0:53 Argument and Its Three Kinds 1:42 What a Syllogism Is 2:29 Equal to an Equal 3:17 Does Leaving It Out Break the Count? 4:05 "A Part of a Substance Is a Substance" 4:56 Following in Reality, or in the Mind? 5:45 Two Families of Syllogism 6:41 Minor, Major, Middle 7:30 Four Figures 8:16 Rules for Every Figure 9:02 The First Figure: Sixteen Down to Four 9:54 Is the First Figure Circular? 10:42 "The Void Does Not Exist" 11:29 The Second Figure 12:21 The Third and Fourth Figures 13:14 Can a Merely Possible Premise Yield? 14:09 "Possibility of Being" and "Being of Possibility" 15:01 What the Conclusion Inherits 15:54 Syllogisms Built of "If" 16:46 "If Two Is Odd…" 17:35 Through the Door of Existence 18:20 Ibn Sīnā, the Author, and Walī Allāh 19:05 The Exceptive Syllogism 19:56 The Knotty Doubt 20:42 Either–Or, Chains, and Reductio 21:35 Induction and the Crocodile 22:20 Two Muslims and One Unbeliever 23:08 The Solution, and the Ḥāshiya's Verdict 23:56 Analogy, the Jurists' Qiyās 24:48 Rising and Falling Together, and Probing 25:40 The Five Arts, and Demonstration 26:30 What Certainty Is 27:25 Innate and Observed 28:15 Intuition and Experience 29:10 Reports From Many 30:06 "Why" and "That" 31:01 "Demolishing the Palace of the Innī Proof" 31:49 Dialectic: What Everyone Says 32:45 Rhetoric: Trusted Voices and Likely Things 33:38 Poetry: The Soul Obeys the Image 34:33 Sophistry: Counterfeit Wisdom 35:29 The Last Rung