COMPOSITION, in Logic, a method of reasoning, whereby we proceed from some general self-evident truth to other particular and singular ones.
In disposing and putting together our thoughts, there are two ways of proceeding equally within our choice; for we may so suppose the truths, relating to any part of knowledge, as they presented themselves to the mind in the manner of investigation: carrying on the series of proofs in a reverse order, till they at last terminate in first principles: or beginning with these principles, we may take the contrary way; and from them deduce, by a direct train of reasoning, all the several propositions we want to establish.
This diversity in the manner of arranging our thoughts
thoughts gives rise to the twofold division of method established among logicians; the one called analytic method, or the method of resolution, inasmuch as it traces things back to their source, and resolves knowledge into its first and original principles. This method stands in contradistinction to the method of composition; or, as it is otherwise called, the synthetic method; for here we proceed by gathering together the several scattered parts of knowledge, and combining them into one system, in such a manner as that the understanding is enabled distinctly to follow truth through all the different stages of gradation.