Aristotle / 2008-06-02 00:00:00
350 BC
POSTERIOR ANALYTICS
by Aristotle
translated by G. R. G. Mure
Book I
1
ALL instruction given or received by way of argument proceeds from
pre-existent knowledge. This becomes evident upon a survey of all
the species of such instruction. The mathematical sciences and all
other speculative disciplines are acquired in this way, and so are the
two forms of dialectical reasoning, syllogistic and inductive; for
each of these latter make use of old knowledge to impart new, the
syllogism assuming an audience that accepts its premisses, induction
exhibiting the universal as implicit in the clearly known
particular. Again, the persuasion exerted by rhetorical arguments is
in principle the same, since they use either example, a kind of
induction, or enthymeme, a form of syllogism.
The pre-existent knowledge required is of two kinds. In some cases
admission of the fact must be assumed, in others comprehension of
the meaning of the term used, and sometimes both assumptions are
essential.
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