or to acquire knowledge of things posited in the mind.
The latter offers little benefit. As for the former, the judgment concerning any particular existing thing is clearer and more firmly known through knowing it as a particular than through a universal syllogism that encompasses it. Thus, syllogism yields little benefit here; rather, it merely prolongs the argument. Syllogism is used in such cases only for someone who is mistaken or obstinate: an example is given and the universal proposition stated to counter his error and obstinacy. Someone whose natural understanding is sound has no such need.
The same applies to their statement:
“Two contraries cannot coexist.”
Whenever two things are known to be contraries, it is known that they cannot coexist before one calls to mind the universal proposition that no two contraries can coexist. Likewise, any particular body is known to be incapable of occupying two places before one knows that no body can occupy two places. Examples of this are numerous. Thus, any particular whose knowledge is sought through these universal propositions is known before the universal proposition itself is known, and knowledge of it does not require that proposition. What is known through such propositions is only similar cases posited in the mind that have not existed in external reality. Things that exist in external reality, however, are known without this syllogism. If it is said that some people come to know certain particular things in external reality through this syllogism, then its basis is analogical inference, which they deny can yield certainty.
They therefore face two alternatives:
If they acknowledge that analogical inference belongs to the same genus as syllogistic inference and is likewise divided into certain and conjectural forms, their distinction collapses. If, however, they assert a distinction between the two, claiming that syllogistic inference can yield certainty whereas analogical inference cannot, this claim is rejected, and it is shown to them that certainty cannot be attained