Abstract
Abstract: The logic manuals of Peter Ramus (Pierre de la Ramée, 1515-72) enjoyed a wridespread pedagogical sueeess in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially in Protestant England. Historians of dialectical studies have judged these manuals, and Ramist dialectic more generally, as purveying a vitiated form of Aristotelian logic because the manuals cite examples frem poetry to illustrate logical principles and axioms. The semantics of Ramist method, however, blurs the neat line between literal and figurative language. A semiotie analysis of Ramist dialectic suggests that the oppesitien between logical discourse and poetic discourse is net stable and that Ramist logie is fundamentally representative or “poetic.”