Abstract

De Soria read Le Clerc's Logica and Ars Critica before writing his Institutes of Rational Philosophy, which reduces methodology to analytics, discovery of truth, rather than synthetics, demonstration of discovered truth. De Soria, unlike Le Clerc, opposes syllogistic and the old logical systems. Reason, experience, and evidence from others supply answers for soluble questions. Twenty of De Soria's thirty laws of analytics concern testimony or historical research, divide into theories of sources and internal criticism, and have no counterpart in the Logica. De Soria's canons distinguishing authentic from spurious writings derive directly from Ars Critica, which he acknowledges