From the book
Stobaeus, Volume II
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordInduction leads through particular examples toward a common point. In this excerpt it identifies an argumentative procedure rather than a modern statistical rule or experimental method.
- In StobaeusIamblichus cites an arrow, lyre and ship to show that usefulness depends on knowledgeable employment, making the instruments’ different forms serve one explanatory comparison.
- In this editionInduction is a useful conventional rendering if the reader follows the examples actually given. Do not add formal steps or an exhaustive theory absent from the excerpt.
- A place to readChapter 2 · Excerpt 5 · Passage 2 Read the list of different instruments and its extension to anything else, noting that the shared point concerns knowledgeable use rather than their physical construction.
- English renderings
- induction; leading toward a general point
Meaning
Epagōgē is a leading or bringing on. In the dialectical setting it names an argumentative procedure in which particular examples make a common point apparent.
Use in the book
Iamblichus says that the god at Branchidae displays induction conspicuously. The quoted examples are an arrow, a lyre, a ship, and anything else: none would become useful without knowledgeable use. The sequence links different instruments through their dependence on competent employment. Its common point is not a physical property shared by all three objects, but the condition under which they benefit human life. The account occurs within a defense of dialectical inquiry, whose value is being demonstrated through its work rather than through a bare assertion of prestige.
The arrow, lyre and ship are not grouped because they resemble one another in shape or material. Their connection is a condition of benefit: each needs knowledgeable use. Extending the claim to anything else makes the intended general point explicit. In Iamblichus’s defense of dialectic, the example also turns attention from possessing an instrument to employing it well. The comparison is argumentative because it directs several cases toward one relation. It does not supply a rule for inferring numerical probabilities from a sample.
Places to read
- Chapter 2 · Excerpt 5 · Passage 22Several instruments illustrate the need for knowledgeable use.
Translation in this edition
Induction is a useful conventional rendering, provided the reader follows the examples actually given. The excerpt does not state a modern statistical rule or enumerate the formal steps of a general inductive logic.
ἐπαγωγὴν
Attested. Chapter 2 · Excerpt 5 · Passage 2; Wachsmuth II, printed pp. 18-19.
περιφανῆ τὴν ἐπαγωγὴν παραδηλῶν
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume II, printed pp. 18–19. The passage’s attribution of the example to a god is part of Iamblichus’s presentation. The lexical explanation concerns the reasoning displayed, without independently authenticating an oracle.