Gardner-Peirce Method for Syllogistic

Abstract

The Gardner Method – a digraph method for Syllogistic – implements the conception of categorical propositions as expressions of subordination and non-subordination between pairs of concepts; in it, the representation of the universal propositions is more complex than the representation of the particular ones. In this work, I will develop an implementation of Syllogistic in which categorical propositions are expressions of instantiation and of non-instantiation of pairs of concepts. I will adapt the Beta System of Peirce’s Existential Graphs to the Gardner Method. This adaptation has the merit of equating the complexity of the representation of categorical propositions, but it introduces other drawbacks.