Article
Modern Paradoxes of Aristotle's Logic
Epoché
(2004)
Abstract
This paper intends to explain key differences between Aristotle’s understanding of the relationships between nous, epistêmê, and the art of syllogistic reasoning (both analytic and dialectical) and the corresponding modern conceptions of intuition, knowledge, and reason. By uncovering the paradoxa that Aristotle’s understanding of syllogistic reasoning presents in relation to modern philosophical conceptions of logic and science, I highlight the problems of a shift in modern philosophy—a shift that occurs most dramatically in the seventeenth century—toward a project of construction, a pervasive desire for rational certainty, and a general insistence on the reducibility of the sciences. The major motivation of this analysis is my intention to show that modern attempts to reduce science/epistêmê to a single science/method of inquiry occlude dialectical and ethico-political dimensions of “reason” and, hence, also impoverish philosophy’s critical capacities.
Keywords
- Aristotle,
- Topics,
- Organon,
- Posterior Analytics,
- dialectic,
- episteme,
- epagoge
Disciplines
Publication Date
2004
DOI
10.5840/epoche20049115
Citation Information
Jason Aleksander. "Modern Paradoxes of Aristotle's Logic" Epoché Vol. 9 Iss. 1 (2004) p. 79 - 99 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jason-aleksander/20/