not recognized by Aristotle; and he dealt only with
categorical syllogisms, and does not treat conditional syllogisms. But
whether or not the fourth figure of the syllogism has any value is
still a matter open to dispute. And though the doctrine of conditional
syllogisms is important, it is not essential, because all conditional
syllogisms can be reduced to categorical {261} syllogisms. The
categorical syllogism is the fundamental type of reasoning, to which
every other form of deduction can be reduced. As for the rest of the
huge treatises on formal logic which some moderns have produced, the
supposed additions are nothing but wearisome, endless, useless,
nauseating, academic distinctions and refinements, which are much
better forgotten than remembered. Aristotle's logic contains therefore
all that is essential to the subject. The only ground on which it can
be attacked is its wholly empirical procedure. But that is another
story. As a collection, arrangement, and analysis of the facts of
reason, it is to all intents and purposes finality achieved at one
stroke.

3. Metaphysics.

The treatise now known as the "Metaphysics" of Aristotle did not
originally bear that name. Aristotle's name for this subject is "first
philosophy," by which he means the knowledge of the first, highest, or
most general principles of the universe. All other branches of
knowledge are subordinate to this science, not because they are
inferior in value, but because they are lower in logical sequence as
dealing with principles less universal in their scope. Thus all the
special sciences deal with one or another particular sphere of being,
but the "first philosophy" has for its subject being as such, "being
so far forth as it is being." It studies, not the characteristics of
this or that kind of being, but the principles which are equally true
of all being. The laws of Zoology apply only to animals, but the
principles of the "first philosophy" apply to everything. The name
"metaphysics" came into use only half a century B.C., when {262}
Andronicus published a complete edition of Aristotle's known works. In
this edition the treatise on "first philosophy" was placed after the
"physics," and "metaphysics" signifies simply "after physics." The
derivation of the word thus appears to be merely accidental and
adventitious. Whether it was also in any way intended to signify that
the subject is "beyond physics," that is, deals with what transcends
p