Aristotle Take-Home Final
Name and Surname: Ajdin Đidić Student Number: 212180245
Section A – Gobbets 2. This passage comes from Aristotle’s Prior Analytics, and in Barns’ volume it is marked under
24b19. What I immediately noticed is that word “syllogism” is rather contentious since some scholars prefer to use term deduction instead. This might come from the fact that syllogism in
Aristotelian sense encompasses broad methodology for argument description and solving which present understanding do not. Aristotle on the very beginning of the book separates syllogism
into parts and explains out of what elements it is consisted: propositions premises, middle term, and conclusion which should elucidate demonstrative scientific episteme. Premises are
consisted of subject and predicate interconnected by middle term. Due to the dependence of conclusion of middle term, this style of logic is also called term logic. Now, in its plainest form,
syllogism is the argument consisted out of 2 propositions and a conclusion that logically follows out of them. Example of proposition: all men are mortal; Socrates is a man; Socrates is mortal.
By recognizing which type of premise is present universal affirmative, universal negative, particular affirmative, particular negative and by following set of logical rules laid by Aristotle
we can deduce is the argument truly syllogism, i.e. does it produce a valid conclusion.
5. The passage comes from book I of Aristotle’s Physics and in Barns’ edition it can be found
under 184a10-184a16. This passage claims that in order to know natural physical things one needs to know their principles. What is interesting about this is not in the passage itself but in the
1
following paragraph 184a17-184a21 in which it is stated that one can go about obtaining knowledge of natural things starting with the ones which are closer to us and then closer to
themselves to their nature. Strange part is that in Posterior Analytics it is exactly opposite, where he emphasizes starting point of things which is clear in itself. But different nature of
things examined needs to be taken into consideration also. Namely, what Aristotle proposes in these articles is deductive approach or proceeding from generals to specifics. Indeed, according
to this, principles are best grasped if things are understood first for our sake and then followed back to the first principles, and hence ending up with causes. “Similarly a child begins by calling
all men father, and all women mother, but later on distinguishes each of them.”
6. The gobbet has been extracted from Aristotle’s “Categories” and in Barns’ edition it is
marked under 1a1-1a5. Part of the greater work, Organon, Categories are peculiar because they deal with terms and classifications, De interpretatione deals with premises and finally the last
part is made of Analytics prior and posterior which is concerned with syllogisms. Now, before he proceeds to his four-fold division and later ten-fold classification of things found in nature,
Aristotle first gives some general remarks on things and their naming in order to avoid any confusion. In the first chapter of Categories he thus mentions homonyms, synonyms, and
paronyms. What he means by homonyms is when 2 words have exactly the same name but their definitions are different, i.e. they are called the same but they are not the same. He gives an
example of real man and a painted man – they are both men but their definition and explanations are quite different. First thing that comes to mind as my own example is bark; both as a dog’s
sounding and outer hard layer of a tree. Since I previously mentioned that Categories deal with terms, having started with this classification of things in particular I find very broad and thus a
very deductive approach to the structure of the book.
2
7. The passage can be find in book II of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics or to be more precise it
