III. - Augustine - De Dialectica - Сочинения и рассказы

Those which are subject to disputation are either simple or complex. Those are simple which are pronounced without any connection with another sentence, e.g. «omnis homo ambulat» (every man walks). They are complex when judgment is made concerning their conjunction (Tr. when the truth or falsity of the connective is the question), e.g. «si ambulat, movetur» (if he is walking, he is moving / if walking is going on, movement is going on). But when judgment is given concerning the conjunction of sentences, it must wait until we come to the culmination (of the syllogism; a Stoic commonplace, tr.). The «summa» (conclusion) is that which is made up of concessions (results from ...) What I am saying is this: Whoever says «si ambulat, movetur» (if he is walking, he is moving) wants to prove something, so that when I concede that this is true, he needs only to say what walks and the conclusion will follow and now cannot be denied, that is, that he moves -- or he simply has to say that it does not move, so that the conclusion again follows and cannot be denied (not not be conceded), namely that he does not walk. And again in like manner if someone says «this man walks», it is a simple sentence; if I concede this one and he adds another, «Whoever walks, moves», and I likewise grant this one, from the conjunction of sentences, though uttered singly and conceded singly, the conclusion follows, which is now of necessity conceded, namely «Therefore, this man moves».