The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman · Chapter
Chapter XL explained
Tristram reflects on the gift of reason and syllogism in humans, contrasting it with angels and beasts, and describes how Walter Shandy attempts to teach Uncle Toby about noses through philosophical lectures, while Toby, misunderstanding, t
What happens
Tristram reflects on the gift of reason and syllogism in humans, contrasting it with angels and beasts, and describes how Walter Shandy attempts to teach Uncle Toby about noses through philosophical lectures, while Toby, misunderstanding, treats his pipe as a medius terminus for measuring hypotheses.
Themes in this chapter
Knowledge and Philosophy
Explores the nature of human reasoning, syllogism, and the contrast between comprehension and discussion.
The Absurdity of Systems
Highlights the absurdity of Walter's systematic lectures on noses and Toby's literal-minded response.
Characters to notice
- Tristram Shandy
Narrator who digresses on the nature of ratiocination and observes his father's lectures.
- Walter Shandy
Delivers philosophical lectures on noses, aiming for Toby to comprehend rather than discuss.
- Uncle Toby
Listens attentively, using his pipe as a medius terminus, but fails to either discuss or weigh the arguments.
Key passages
“The gift of ratiocination and making syllogisms⸺I mean in man—for in superior classes of being, such as angels and spirits⸺’tis all done, may it please your worships, as they tell me, by Intuition ;—and beings inferior, as your worships all know⸺syllogize by their noses”
Humans reason through syllogisms, angels do so by intuition, and lower beings reason by their noses.
Tristram sets up a hierarchy of reasoning, foreshadowing the nose theme.
“the great and principal act of ratiocination in man, as logicians tell us, is the finding out the agreement or disagreement of two ideas one with another, by the intervention of a third (called the medius terminus ); just as a man, as Locke well observes, by a yard, finds two men’s ninepin-alleys to be of the same length”
Human reasoning involves comparing two ideas using a middle term, like using a yardstick to measure two bowling alleys.
Tristram invokes Locke to explain the medius terminus, linking philosophy to everyday measurement.
“Had the same great reasoner looked on, as my father illustrated his systems of noses, and observed my uncle Toby’s deportment—what great attention he gave to every word—and as oft as he took his pipe from his mouth, with what wonderful seriousness he contemplated the length of it⸺surveying it transversely as he held it betwixt his finger and his thumb⸻then fore-right⸻then this way, and then that, in all its possible directions and foreshortenings⸻he would have concluded my uncle Toby had got hold of the medius terminus , and was syllogizing and measuring with it the truth of each hypothesis of long noses”
If Locke had seen Uncle Toby studying his pipe while Walter lectured on noses, he would have thought Toby was using the pipe as a middle term to test each nose hypothesis.
Tristram humorously imagines Toby's pipe as a tool for pseudo-syllogism, mocking both philosophical method and his uncle's literalness.
“his aim in all the pains he was at in these philosophick lectures—was to enable my uncle Toby not to discuss ⸺but comprehend ⸺to hold the grains and scruples of learning⸺not to weigh them.”
Walter's goal was to make Toby understand the material, not to debate it—to grasp the details without analyzing them critically.
Highlights Walter's pedagogical frustration and the gap between his intent and Toby's response.