Peter Ramus

     I am not going to argue that Petrus Ramus is one of the greatest logicians to ever live, but a cursory understanding of his method can help us with writing.

     By now, we should see how Aristotle helps. One can make bold affirmations. They can tell what is. They can then show what is not. Allowing no room for contradiction is also often helpful. Finally, one can draw conclusions when all of the propositions are truthfully laid out.

     In a court case, most of the defense is one in which the truthfulness and validity of the propositions are attacked. This is also a tool that Aristotle opens up to us writers,

     What did  Peter Ramus do? Two things: 1. he divided learning into categories so that students could more easily digest it. We have him to blame for modern subject divisions more than John Dewey. Aristotle saw knowledge more as a whole. PR gave it to us in nutshells that made it bite size and digestible. 2. he introduced binary logic as a track to be followed to a conclusion.

     Now, his style of binary logic could not be immediately translated into computers, nor was it even called that. But it did influence the pervasive theology, culture and William Shakespeare. How? By simply noting that any single choice leads to more choices (note: to be or not to be speech).

     For beginning writers, this often leads to the Either/or logical fallacy. For example, America, love it or leave it. This danger is easily fixed (America actually offers a myriad of choices, including one in which we decide to engage and make it better) with a hedge.

     What's a hedge? An acknowledgement that there is always more than just two choices.

     "Many people prefer dogs, while others like cats." is much better than "People either like cats or they like dogs." Once a person has set up the proper Ramean binary proposition with the appropriate hedge(s), they can then present their evidence for the dichotomy they've created.

     One can easily see how a reverse engineering of Ramean Logic creates the basic pancake/waffle mix that is the basis of computer programming. One can also see how his style of thought makes an easy guide for the writer who desires to open up new vistas.