Talk:The Art of Being Right/basis

Does anyone else find this portion of the translation puzzling?

II. The two courses that we may pursue are (1) the direct, and (2) the indirect refutation. The direct attacks the reason for the thesis; the indirect, its results. The direct refutation shows that the thesis is not true; the indirect, that it cannot be true.

The direct course admits of a twofold procedure. Either we may show that the reasons for the statement are false (nego majorem, minorem) or we may admit the reasons or premisses, but show that the statement does not follow from them (nego consequentiam); that is, we attack the conclusion or form of the syllogism.

The direct refutation makes use either of the diversion, or of the instance.

It seems to me like that last sentence should say "The indirect refutation...".

That would be more consistent with the diagram on the wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Being_Right#mediaviewer/File:Schopenhauers_basis_of_dialectic.svg

And if you check out the version that shows both the German and English versions together: http://coolhaus.de/art-of-controversy/erist00.htm

it looks to me like the German version is trying to say "the indirect refutation"...although I don't know German, so it's possible that "indirekten" actually means "direct".