North-African path · level 2 · Ḥāshiyat al-Bājūrī ʿalā al-Sullam · Lesson 14 of 18

The conditions of the figures

The syllogism · shurūṭ al-ashkāl · p. 92

شُرُوطُ الأَشْكالِ

Draft · awaiting review

Our own lessons with quotations from the print of Cairo 1324/1906 · translation by The Mantiqi, draft

About this text

Ḥāshiyat al-Bājūrī ʿalā al-Sullam حاشِيَةُ الباجُورِيِّ عَلَى السُّلَّمِ

Ibrāhīm al-Bājūrī (d. 1276/1860)

Text: Arabic: passages quoted in the lessons, transcribed by The Mantiqi from this print (the whole text is not reproduced): Ḥāshiyat al-Bājūrī ʿalā matn al-Sullam, with al-Anbābī's taqrīr in the margin, al-Maṭbaʿa al-Azhariyya al-Miṣriyya (2nd printing), Cairo 1324/1906, pp. 26–112 (passages) View the scan
Lessons follow: The lessons are The Mantiqi's own explanations of the Sullam, verse by verse, following Ibrāhīm al-Bājūrī; his words are quoted where they matter most.
Translation: The Mantiqi's own; a draft.
Review: Draft, awaiting review by Ustadh Muhammad Yusuf.

In Ibrāhīm al-Bājūrī's words

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Quoted from the Arabic of Ḥāshiyat al-Bājūrī ʿalā matn al-Sullam, with al-Anbābī's taqrīr in the margin, Cairo 1324/1906

لا يَخْفَى أَنَّ الشَّرْطَ الأَوَّلَ مِنْ حَيْثُ الكَيْفُ، وَالشَّرْطَ الثّانِيَ مِنْ حَيْثُ الكَمُّ، وَإِنَّما كانَ ما ذُكِرَ شَرْطَ الإِنْتاجِ لِأَنَّهُ لَوِ انْتَفَى إِيجابُ الصُّغْرَى لَاضْطَرَبَتِ النَّتِيجَةُ، فَقَدْ تَصْدُقُ كَما فِي قَوْلِكَ: لا شَيْءَ مِنَ الإِنْسانِ بِحَجَرٍ، وَكُلُّ حَجَرٍ جَمادٌ، وَقَدْ تَكْذِبُ كَما لَوْ أَبْدَلْتَ الكُبْرَى فِي المِثالِ المَذْكُورِ بِقَوْلِكَ: وَكُلُّ حَجَرٍ جِسْمٌ.

Clearly the first condition concerns quality and the second quantity. They are conditions of producing a conclusion because, were the minor not affirmative, the conclusion would waver: it may be true, as in “No human is a stone, and every stone is inanimate”, and it may be false, as if you replaced the major in that example with “and every stone is a body”.

Google Translate ↗p. 92

The lesson

The Sullam gives the conditions of each : in the first, the and the ; in the second, the differing in quality and the major universal; in the third, the minor affirmative and one premise universal; in the fourth, as the poem sets out.

Al-Bājūrī explains why the conditions are what they are. The first condition of the first concerns quality, the second quantity; and they are conditions because without them the “wavers”: from the same form one would get a true conclusion with some matter and a false one with other matter, so nothing would follow of itself.

His example: “no human is a stone, and every stone is inanimate” would yield the true “no human is inanimate”; but replace the with “every stone is a body”, and the same form yields the false “no human is a body”. A form that can yield both is not a valid mood.

Terms

الضَّرْبُ al-ḍarb: mood: a combination of premises in a figure
الإِنْتاجُ al-intāj: yielding a conclusion
اضْطِرابُ النَّتِيجَةِ iḍṭirāb al-natīja: the wavering of the conclusion: true with one matter, false with another

Examples

لا شَيْءَ مِنَ الإِنْسانِ بِحَجَرٍ وَكُلُّ حَجَرٍ جِسْمٌ
with a negative minor, the first figure would yield the false “no human is a body”

Test yourself

3 questions on this lesson. With 6 out of 10 or more (two stars) the next lesson opens.

Question 1
What are the two conditions of the first figure?
Question 2
Why, according to al-Bājūrī, is the affirmative minor a condition?
Question 3
What does the second figure require in quality?

Next lesson: The exceptive syllogism

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