The terminology of Aristotle in the Analytica is to a certain extent
different from that in the treatise De Interpretatione. The
Enunciation ([Greek: A)po/phanis]) appears under the new name of
[Greek: Pro/tasis], _Proposition_ (in the literal sense) or
_Premiss_; while, instead of Noun and Verb, we have the word _Term_
([Greek: O(/ros]), applied alike both to Subject and to Predicate.[3]
We pass now from the region of _declared_ truth, into that of
_inferential_ or _reasoned_ truth. We find the proposition looked at,
not merely as communicating truth in itself, but as generating and
helping to guarantee certain ulterior propositions, which communicate
something additional or different. The primary purpose of the
Analytica is announced to be, to treat of Demonstration and
demonstrative Science; but the secondary purpose, running parallel
with it and serving as illustrative counterpart, is, to treat also of
Dialectic; both of them[4] being applications of the inferential or
ratiocinative process, the theory of which Aristotle intends to
unfold.
[Footnote 3: Aristot. Analyt. Prior. I. i. p. 24, b. 16: [Greek:
o(/ron de\ kalô= ei)s o(\n dialu/etai ê( pro/tasis, oi(=on to/ te
katêgorou/menon kai\ to\ kath' ou(= katêgorei=tai], &c.
[Greek: O(/ros]--_Terminus_--seems to have been a technical word
first employed by Aristotle himself to designate subject and
predicate as the _extremes_ of a proposition, which latter he
conceives as the _interval_ between the _termini_--[Greek:
_dia/stêma_]. (Analyt. Prior. I. xv. p. 35, a. 12. [Greek:
sterêtikô=n diastêma/tôn], &c. See Alexander, Schol. pp. 145-146.)
In the Topica Aristotle employs [Greek: o(/ros] in a very different
sense--[Greek: lo/gos o( to\ ti/ ê)=n ei)=nai sêmai/nôn] (Topic. I.
v. p. 101, b. 39)--hardly distinguished from [Greek: o(rismo/s]. The
Scholia take little notice of this remarkable variation of meaning,
as between two treatises of the Organon so intimately connected (pp.
256-257, Br.).]
[Footnote 4: Analyt. Prior. I. i. p. 24, a. 25.]
The three treatises--1, Analytica Priora, 2, Analytica Posteriora, 3,
Topica with Sophistici Elenchi--thus belong all to one general
scheme; to the theory of the Syllogism, with its distinct
applications, first, to demonstrative or didactic science, and, next,
to dialectical debate. The scheme is plainly announced at the
commencement of the Analytica Priora; which treatise discusses the
Syllogism generally, while the Analytica Posteriora deals with
Demonstration, and the Topica with Dialectic. The first chapter of
the Analytica Priora and the last chapter of the Sophistici Elenchi
(closing the Topica), form a preface and a conclusion to the whole.
The exposition of the Syllogism, Aristotle distinctly announces,
precedes that of Demonstration (and for the same reason also precedes
that of Dialectic), because it is more general: every demonstration
is a sort of syllogism, but every syllogism is not a
demonstration.[5]
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