1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Organon

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ORGANON (Gr. ὄργανον, instrument, from ἔργον, work), the name given to Aristotle's logical treatises. They are so called because logic is itself neither a speculative science nor a practical art in the ordinary sense, but an aid or instrument to all scientific thought. Francis Bacon, regarding the Aristotelian logic as he understood it as of no avail, gave to his own treatise the name Novum Organum in the belief that he had discovered a new inductive logic which would lead necessarily to the acquisition of new scientific knowledge. Compare also Whewell's Novum Organum Renovatum and Lambert's Neues Organon. In medieval music the term was applied in a similar sense to early attempts at improvised counterpoint i.e. a part sung as an accompaniment above or below the melody or plainsong; it consisted of 8ths and 5ths (or 4ths) added to the plainsong.