Peter Ramus and the Basis of Logic

Abstract

Drawing on numerous biographical and critical sources, and paying particular attention to the sociohistorical context of sixteenth-century Europe, this chapter charts Peter Ramus’s rise in French academia. Ramus’s search for a natural method of rational inquiry posited his willingness to court controversy. The manner of Ramus’s inquiry evinced his reluctance to compromise. His master’s thesis of 1536, Quæcumque ab Aristotele dicta sunt, commentitia sunt, announced that unwillingness. Ramus’s two publications from 1543, Dialecticae partitiones and Aristotelicae animadversiones, confirmed the contentiousness of that reluctance. Ramus’s initial target was the reformation of dialectic. He proceeded to reassess rhetoric. Ramus considered rhetoric intimate with, but separate and subservient to, dialectic. His radical humanism even alienated some humanists.

If I had to pass judgment upon my own works, I should desire that the monument raised to my memory should commemorate the reform of logic.

—Peter Ramus, Preface, Dialecticae libri duo (qtd. in Frank Pierrepont Graves 104)