General Overview (6)

3.2 Structure of the acts of the mind in specie

Setting aside perception or the sensible image of the thing signified, which does not pertain to the logician, we find the following structure of the three operations of the mind (In 1 Sent, EBD 5.3)



Some observations:
1. Many authors use indifferently the words 'concept' and 'term' to designate the product of the first operation, such as John of St Thomas or Roger Verneaux. We prefer rather to distinguish in vocabulary the immaterial product of simple apprehension and its necessary linguistic concretization, whether one is in fact speaking or merely thinking.

2. One will note that both judgment and reasoning have for their object the pertaining of a certain quiddity to a certain thing. In fact, the difference between these two operations is found only in the mind, while their final scope is always an affirmation or a negation. In the case of judgment, the real thing signified in the proposition is known in an immediate way, whereas with reasoning, it is reached in a mediated way. If the operations of the mind are considered from the point of view of the reality signified, there are only two (the second being divided into immediate and mediated); but when considered from the point of view of the operation as such, they are then three, since judgment and reasoning constitute, in the mind, different processes.


We are now prepared to describe logic in a more precise way. It is the art that allows one to proceed with due order in the construction of propositions and arguments, in a way that reaches the truth. One can thus already see that logic has for its characteristic object the relations between the concepts in propositions and arguments, insofar as such relations can be ordered to the truth.