Aristotle
(_i. e._, undemonstrable) yet not necessary, is Opinion; it is not
Science, nor is it Noûs or Intellect--the _principium_ of Science or
scientific Cognition. Such beliefs are fluctuating, as we see every
day; we all distinguish them from other beliefs, which we cannot
conceive not to be true and which we call cognitions.[91] But may
there not be Opinion and Cognition respecting the same matters? There
may be (says Aristotle) in different men, or in the same man at
different times; but not in the same man at the same time. There may
also be, respecting the same matter, true opinion in one man's mind,
and false opinion in the mind of another.[92]
[Footnote 91: Analyt. Post. I. xxxiii. p. 88, b. 30-p. 89, a. 10.]
[Footnote 92: Ibid. p. 89, a. 11-b. 6. That eclipse of the sun is
caused by the interposition of the moon was to the astronomer
Hipparchos scientific Cognition; for he saw that it _could not_ be
otherwise. To the philosopher Epikurus it was Opinion; for he thought
that it _might_ be otherwise (Themistius, p. 66, Spengel).]
With some remarks upon Sagacity, or the power of divining a middle
term in a time too short for reflection (as when the friendship of
two men is on the instant referred to the fact of their having a
common enemy), the present book is brought to a close.[93]
[Footnote 93: Ibid. xxxiv. p. 89, b. 10-20.]
CHAPTER VIII.
ANALYTICA POSTERIORA II.
Aristotle begins the Second Book of the Analytica Posteriora by an
enumeration and classification of Problems or Questions suitable for
investigation. The matters knowable by us may be distributed into
four classes:--
[Greek: O(/ti]. [Greek: Dio/ti]. [Greek: Ei) e)/sti]. [Greek: Ti/
e)sti].
1. Quod. 2. Cur. 3. An sit. 4. Quid sit.
Under the first head come questions of Fact; under the second head,
questions of Cause or Reason; under the third, questions of
Existence; under the fourth, questions of Essence. Under the first
head we enquire, Whether a fact or event is so or so? Whether a given
subject possesses this or that attribute, or is in this or that
condition? enumerating in the question the various supposable
alternatives. Under the second head, we assume the first question to
have been affirmatively answered, and we proceed to enquire, What is
the cause or reason for such fact, or such conjunction of subject and
attribute? Under the third head, we ask, Does a supposed subject
exist? And if the answer be in the affirmative, we proceed to
enquire, under the fourth head, What is the essence of the
subject?[1]
[Footnote 1: Analyt. Post. II. i. p. 89, b. 23, seq. Themistius
observes, p. 67, Speng.: [Greek: zêtou=men ti/nun ê)\ peri\ a(plou=
tino\s kai\ a)sunthe/tou, ê)\ peri\ sunthe/tou kai\ e)n prota/sei.]
Themistius has here changed Aristotle's order, and placed the third
and fourth heads before the first and second. Compare Schol. p. 240,
b. 30; p. 241, a. 18. The Scholiast complains of the enigmatical
style of Aristotle: [Greek: tê=| griphô/dei tou= r(êtou= e)paggeli/a]
(p. 240, b. 25).]
We have here two distinct pairs of _Quæsita_: Obviously the second
head presupposes the first, and is consequent thereupon; while the
fourth also presupposes the third. But it might seem a more suitable
arrangement (as Themistius and other expositors have conceived) that
the third and fourth heads should come first in the list, rather than
the first and second; since the third and fourth are simpler, and
come earlier in the order of philosophical exposition, while the
first and second are more complicated, and cannot be expounded
philosophically until after the philosophical exposition of the
others. This is cleared up by adverting to the distinction, so often
insisted on by Aristotle, between what is first in order of cognition
relatively to us (_nobis notiora_), and what is first in order of
cognition by nature (_naturâ notiora_). _To us_ (that is to men taken
individually and in the course of actual growth) the phenomena of
nature[2] present themselves as particulars confused and complicated
in every way, with attributes essential and accidental implicated
together: we gradually learn first to see and compare them as
particulars, next to resolve them into generalities, bundles,
classes, and partially to explain the _Why_ of some by means of
others. Here we start from facts embodied in propositions, that
include subjects clothed with their attributes. But in the _order of
nature_ (that is, in the order followed by those who know the
_scibile_ as a whole, and can expound it scientifically) that which
comes first is the Universal or the simple Subject abstracted from
its predicates or accompaniments: we have to enquire, first, whether
a given subject exists; next, if it does exist, what is its real
constituent essence or definition. We thus see the reason for the
order in which Aristotle has arranged the two co-ordinate pairs of
_Quæsita_ or Problems, conformable to the different processes
pursued, on the one hand, by the common intellect, growing and
untrained--on the other, by the mature or disciplined intellect,
already competent for philosophical exposition and applying itself to
new _incognita_.
[Footnote 2: **Schol. Philopon. p. 241, a. 18-24: [Greek:
tou/tôn to\ ei) e)/sti kai\ to\ ti/ e)stin ei)si\n a(pla=, to\ de\
o(/ti kai\ to\ dio/ti su/ntheta--pro/tera ga\r ê(mi=n kai\
gnôrimô/tera ta\ su/ntheta, ô(s tê=| phu/sei ta\ a(pla=.]
Mr. Poste observes upon this quadruple classification by Aristotle
(p. 96):--"The two last of these are problems of Inductive, but first
principles of Deductive, Science; the one being the hypothesis, the
other the definition. The **attribute as well as the subject
must be defined (I. x.), so that to a certain degree the second
problem also is assumed among the principles of Demonstration."]
Comparing together these four _Quæsita_, it will appear that in the
first and third (_Quod_ and _An_), we seek to find out whether there
is or is not any middle term. In the second and fourth (_Cur_ and
_Quid_), we already know or assume that there is a middle term; and
we try to ascertain what that middle term is.[3] The enquiry _Cur_,
is in the main analogous to the enquiry _Quid_; in both cases, we aim
at ascertaining what the cause or middle term is. But, in the enquiry
_Cur_, what we discover is perhaps some independent fact or event,
which is the cause of the event _quæsitum_; while, in the enquiry
_Quid_, what we seek is the real essence or definition of the
substance--the fundamental, generating, immanent cause of its
concomitant attributes. Sometimes, however, the _Quid_ and the _Cur_
are only different ways of stating the same thing. _E.g._, _Quid est
eclipsis lunæ_? Answer: The essence of an eclipse is a privation of
light from the moon, through intervention of the earth between her
and the sun. _Cur locum habet eclipsis lunæ_? Answer: Because the
light of the sun is prevented from reaching the moon by intervention
of the earth. Here it is manifest that the answers to the enquiries
_Quid_ and _Cur_ are really and in substance the same fact, only
stated in different phrases.[4]
[Footnote 3: Analyt. Post. II. i. p. 889, b. 37-p. 90, a. 7. [Greek:
sumbai/nei a)/ra e)n a(pa/sais tai=s zêtê/sesi zêtei=n ê)\ ei) e)/sti
me/son, ê)\ ti/ e)sti to\ me/son; to\ me\n ga\r ai)/tion to\ me/son,
e)n a(/pasi de\ tou=to zêtei=tai.] Compare Schol. p. 241, b. 10, Br.]
[Footnote 4: Analyt. Post. II. ii. p. 90, a. 14-23, 31: [Greek: to\
ti/ e)stin ei)de/nai tau)to/ e)sti kai\ dia\ ti/ e)stin.]]
That the _quæsitum_ in all these researches is a middle term or
medium, is plain from those cases wherein the medium is perceivable
by sense; for then we neither require nor enter upon research. For
example, if we were upon the moon, we should see the earth coming
between us and the sun, now and in each particular case of eclipse.
Accordingly, after many such observations, we should affirm the
universal proposition, that such intervention of the earth was the
cause of eclipses; the universal becoming known to us through
induction of particular cases.[5] The middle term, the Cause, the
_Quid_, and the _Cur_, are thus all the same enquiry, in substance;
though sometimes such _quæsitum_ is the quiddity or essential nature
of the thing itself (as the essence of a triangle is the cause or
ground of its having its three angles equal to two right angles, as
well as of its other properties), sometimes it is an extraneous
fact.[6]
[Footnote 5: Ibid. a. 24-30. [Greek: e)k ga\r tou= ai)sthe/sthai kai\
to\ katho/lou e)ge/neto a)\n ê(mi=n ei)de/nai; ê( me\n ga\r
ai)/sthêsis o(/ti nu=n a)ntiphra/ttei; kai\ ga\r dê=lon o(/ti nu=n
e)klei/pei; e)k de\ tou/tou to\ katho/lou a)\n e)ge/neto.]
The purport and relation of this quadruple classification of problems
is set forth still more clearly in the sixth book of the Metaphysica
(Z. p. 1041) with the explanations of Bonitz, Comm. pp. 358, 359.]
[Footnote 6: Analyt. Post. II. ii. p. 90, a. 31.]
But how or by what process is this _quæsitum_ obtained and made
clear? Is it by Demonstration or by Definition? What is Definition,
and what matters admit of Definition?[7] Aristotle begins by treating
the question dialectically; by setting out a series of doubts and
difficulties. First, Is it possible that the same cognition, and in
the same relation, can be obtained both by Definition and by
Demonstration? No; it is not possible. It is plain that much that is
known by Demonstration cannot be known by Definition; for we have
seen that conclusions both particular and negative are established by
Demonstration (in the Third and Second figures), while every
Definition is universal and affirmative. But we may go farther and
say, that even where a conclusion universal and affirmative is
established (in the First figure) by Demonstration, that same
conclusion can never be known by Definition; for if it could be known
by Definition, it might have been known without Demonstration. Now we
are assured, by an uncontradicted induction, that this is not the
fact; for that which we know by Demonstration is either a proprium of
the subject _per se_, or an accident or concomitant; but no
Definition ever declares either the one or the other: it declares
only the essence.[8]
[Footnote 7: Ibid. iii. p. 90, a. 37: [Greek: ti/ e)stin o(rismo/s,
kai\ ti/nôn, ei)/pômen, diaporê/santes prô=ton peri\ au)tô=n.]]
[Footnote 8: Analyt. Post. II. iii. p. 90, b. 13: [Greek: i(kanê\ de\
pi/stis kai\ e)k tê=s e)pagôgê=s; ou)de\n ga\r pô/pote o(risa/menoi
e)/gnômen, ou)/te tô=n kath' au(to\ u(parcho/ntôn ou)/te tô=n
sumbebêko/tôn. e)/ti ei) o( o(rismo\s ou)si/as tis gnôrismo/s, ta\ ge
toiau=ta phanero\n o(/ti ou)k ou)si/ai.]]
Again, let us ask, _vice versâ_, Can everything that is declared by
Definition, or indeed anything that is declared by Definition, be
known also by Demonstration? Neither is this possible. One and the
same _cognitum_ can be known only by one process of cognition.
Definitions are the _principia_ from which Demonstration departs; and
we have already shown that in going back upon demonstrations, we must
stop somewhere, and must recognize some _principia_
undemonstrable.[9] The Definition can never be demonstrated, for it
declares only the essence of the subject, and does not predicate
anything concerning the subject; whereas Demonstration assumes the
essence to be known, and deduces from such assumption an attribute
distinct from the essence.[10]
[Footnote 9: Ibid. b. 18-27.]
[Footnote 10: Ibid. b. 33, seq.: [Greek: e)/ti pa=sa a)po/deixis ti\
kata/ tinos dei/knusin, oi(=on o(/ti e)/stin ê)\ ou)k e)/stin; e)n
de\ tô=| o(rismô=| ou)de\n e(/teron e(te/rou katêgorei=tai, oi(=on
ou)/te to\ zô=|on kata\ tou= di/podos ou)de\ tou=to kata\ tou=