Confitemur

Latin Learning Latin
1

My lovably ascerbic commentator (http://discourse.textkit.com/t/nunquam-pluperfect-subjunctive/20133/1) is defending the use of induction.

Quamdiu nos inductione ista eludes?
For how long will you mock this induction?

Quamdiu in scientiae investigandae praecepto delirabis?
For how long will you go off track in the rule for investigating knowledge?

I am uncomfortable with my reading of the next two lines. The result sounds circular, with induction described in terms of induction. And I am not giving tamen any work to do. And of course, I cannot assume the colon after confitemur acts like a modern colon.

de inveniendis per inductionem generalibus confitemur:
For finding universals through induction, we avow:

unica tamen est rerum generalium, quae inductione specialium constitutae sunt, ordine collocandatum methodus.
It is the only method for the placing in order of universal things that have been constituted by the induction of particulars.

I’m reading something incorrectly here. What is it?

2

You ignore nos in the first sentence, where he’s evidently channeling Cicero’s First Catilinarian: “Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? …”

As to the last two lines, Is collocandatum a typo for collocandarum?
I’m no logician, but if “de inveniendis per inductionem generalibus confitemur” means something like “We admit to discovering universals by means of induction” then the following sentence could be a defense of that procedure, tantamount to “but that’s the only method available.”

3

I looked at the scan again and I think you are right: collocandatum should be collocandarum.