Date: August 10th, 2026 9:18 PM Author: Adventurous Casino Tank
The LSAT does all the writing for you, you just pick the right answer. In medieval dissertations you had to do all the writing, and you had to use LSAT logic to make your points. Your logic had to be tight at each step. It didn't matter what you were writing about, you had to score a 180. There couldn't be any gaps in your reasoning. Even if you were just writing about a medicinal plant from the Dutch Indies, you had to go out of your way to prove your command of formal logic. They did this in the middle east for a long time too. Persians thought you had to show your command of LSAT logic before you could say anything else. Descartes didn't invent nuthin
Date: August 10th, 2026 9:20 PM Author: Adventurous Casino Tank
In the classroom and in writing, it often takes the form of explicit disputation: a topic drawn from the tradition is broached in the form of a proposition on a question to be debated, oppositional responses are given, a counterproposal is argued and oppositional arguments rebutted. Because of its emphasis on rigorous dialectical method, scholasticism was eventually applied to many other fields of study.[6][7]
Date: August 10th, 2026 9:37 PM Author: Adventurous Casino Tank
Philosopher Johann Beukes has suggested that from 1349 to 1464, the era between the deaths of William of Ockham and Nicholas of Cusa, there was a distinct period characterized by "robust and independent philosophers" who departed from high scholasticism on issues such as institutional criticism and materialism but retained scholasticism's method. These philosophers include Marsilius of Padua, Thomas Bradwardine, John Wycliffe, Catherine of Sienna, Jean Gerson, Gabriel Biel and ended with Nicholas of Cusa.[30]
Date: August 10th, 2026 10:01 PM Author: Adventurous Casino Tank
Mastery of syllogistic reasoning was your ticket into the club. It was necessary, but no one said it was sufficient to do anything, just like no one thinks a perfect LSAT score qualifies you to practice law. Descartes whined that "but syllogistic reasoning isn't enough," but in order to make that argument Descartes also had to demonstrate his mastery of syllogistic reasoning. And here we are in the 21st century still taking the LSAT.
So what was Descartes really trying to say? What's he got to teach us right now?
Date: August 10th, 2026 10:06 PM Author: Adventurous Casino Tank
Descartes was saying syllogistic reasoning can't get you to true knowledge. But anyone trying to figure out who John the Baptist was could have told you the same thing
Medieval logic wasn't quite like the logic we know today. I think only the Categories and De Interpretatione were known to Latin Europe in the Middle Ages, and those deal more with the intersection between logic and natural language. A typical concept in medieval logic was the "supposition," the way a substantive word can refer to multiple objects. For example, "man" can refer to any single man currently living, but it was considered a puzzle how "man" could also refer to a man who was once alive, or a man who will be born in the future: the process by which "man" could stand for a past or future man was called "ampliation."
Date: September 11th, 2026 6:35 PM Author: Adventurous Casino Tank
LSAT logic is just as arbitrary in what it considers "formal". We got locked into our present mode of legal reasoning because we took religion out of the picture, mostly. There used to be a lot religious law mixed in with secular law.