ABSTRACT
The sciences are divided by Aristotle’ into the theoretical, the practical, and the productive; the immediate purpose of each kind is to know, but their ultimate purposes are respectively knowledge, conduct, and the making of useful or beautiful objects. Logic, if it entered into this classification, would have to be included among the theoretical sciences; but the only theoretical sciences are mathematics, physics, and theology or metaphysics2 and logic cannot be included under any of these. It is in fact, according to Aristotle, not a substantive science,3 but a part of general culture which everyone should undergo before he studies any science, and which alone will enable him to know for what sorts of proposition he should demand proof and what sorts of proof he should demand for them.4 A similar conception underlies the application of the word Organon or instrument (SC. of science) to logical doctrine5 and ultimately6 to the collection of Aristotle’s logical works.
