because of the weakness of its content that they discredited it. For the arguments advanced by the Jahmiyyah, the Qadariyyah, and those among the Ashʿariyyah and others who agree with them to establish that bodies originated in time are weak because of their content, not because their form yields only probability. Hence, it makes no difference whether they cast them in analogical or syllogistic form.

Section

As for (the fourth point)—their claim that syllogism or demonstration yields propositional knowledge—it is the most subtle of these points.

[For the logicians’ error concerning the three points—namely, denying that conception is possible except through definition, attaining conception through definition, denying that judgment is attained through definition, and denying that judgment is attained through syllogism—is clear upon the slightest reflection. The grounds for recognizing it are readily accessible, and knowledge of it is evident] (*).

They merely confuse people through intimidating displays and prolixity. Their most obviously erroneous claim is that the conceptions sought can be attained only through the definitions they prescribe. Next comes their assertion that none of the judgments sought can be attained except through the syllogisms they prescribe. There is no way to know that such a sweeping denial is true, nor is there any evidence whatsoever to support it. Indeed, its falsity is known from the judgments sought that are attained without their prescribed syllogisms, just as conceptions sought are attained without their prescribed definitions—unlike the present point