Note 55 — Chapter V · LOGIC OF THE STOICS.

C. Formal logic. (1) Utterance in general. The term formal logic is here used to express those investigations which the Stoics included under the doctrine of utterance.55 The common object of those enquiries is that which is thought, or, as the Stoics called it, that which is uttered (λεκτόν), understanding thereby the substance of thought—thought regarded by itself as a distinct something, differing alike from the external object to which it refers, from the sound by which it is expressed, and from the power of mind which produces it. For this reason, they maintain that only utterance is not material; things are always material; even the process of thought consists in a material change within the soul, and an uttered word, in a certain movement of the atmosphere.56 A question is here suggested in passing, which should not be lost sight of, viz. How far was it correct for the Stoics to speak of thoughts as existing, seeing they are not material, since, according to their teaching, reality only belongs to material things?57