[Footnote 58: Analyt. Prior. II. xxiv. p. 69, a. 1-19**.
Julius Pacius (p. 400) notes the unauthorized character of
this so-called Paradeigmatic Syllogism, contradicting the rules of
the figures laid down by Aristotle, and also the confused manner in
which the scope of it is described: first, to infer from a single
example to the universal; next, to infer from a single example
_through_ the universal to another parallel case. To which we may add
the confused description in p. 69, a. 17, 18, where [Greek: to\
a)/kron] in the first of the two lines signifies the _major_
extreme--in the second of the two the _minor_ extreme. See Waitz's
note, p. 533.
If we turn to ch. xxvii. p. 70, a. 30-34, we shall find Aristotle on
a different occasion disallowing altogether this so-called Syllogism
from Example.]
These chapters respecting Induction and Example are among the most
obscure and perplexing in the Aristotelian Analytica. The attempt to
throw both Induction and Example into the syllogistic form is alike
complicated and unfortunate; moreover, the unsatisfactory reading and
diversities in the text, among commentators and translators, show
that the reasoning of Aristotle has hitherto been imperfectly
apprehended.[59] From some of his phrases, we see that he was aware
of the essential antithesis between Induction and Syllogism; yet the
syllogistic forms appear to have exercised such fascination over his
mind, that he could not be satisfied without trying to find some
abnormal form of Syllogism to represent and give validity to
Induction. In explaining generally what the Syllogism is, and what
Induction is, he informs us that the Syllogism presupposes and rests
upon the process of Induction as its postulate. For there can be no
valid Syllogism without an universal proposition in one (at least) of
the premisses; and he declares, unequivocally, that universal
propositions are obtained only through Induction. How Induction
operates through the particular facts of sense, remembered, compared,
and coalescing into clusters held together by associating similarity,
he has also told us; it is thus that Experience, with its universal
notions and conjunctions, is obtained. But this important process is
radically distinct from that of syllogizing, though it furnishes the
basis upon which all syllogizing is built.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account