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Why did Petrus Ramus propose teaching reasoning through Euclid’s Elements?
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Aristotle, marble portrait bust, Roman copy (2nd century bce) of a Greek original (c. 325 bce); in the Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome.
Petrus Ramus proposed teaching reasoning through Euclid’s Elements as an alternative to the traditional study of the syllogism.1
His recommendation was part of a broader effort to reform logic by rejecting what he viewed as the sterile, overly complex logical systems inherited from the Middle Ages and the traditional Aristotelian approach. By advocating for the use of Elements—a foundational treatise on geometry—Ramus sought to emphasize a more practical and simplified method of reasoning that could be applied to actual arguments, rather than relying on the artificial techniques and abstract subtleties of scholastic logic.21