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Categories/On Interpretation/Prior Analytics
Aristotle, great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner, and writer, born at Stagirus in 384 BCE, was the son of Nicomachus, a physician, and Phaestis. He studied under Plato at Athens and taught there (367 47); subsequently he spent three years at the court of a former pupil, Hermeias, in Asia Minor and at this time married Pythias, one of Hermeias s relations. After some time at Mitylene, in 343 2 he was appointed by King Philip of Macedon to be tutor of his teen-aged son Alexander. After Philip s death in 336, Aristotle became head of his own school (of Peripatetics ), the Lyceum at Athens. Because of anti-Macedonian feeling there after Alexander s death in 323, he withdrew to Chalcis in Euboea, where he died in 322. Nearly all the works Aristotle prepared for publication are lost; the priceless ones extant are lecture-materials, notes, and memoranda (some are spurious). They can be categorized as follows: I. Practical: "Nicomachean Ethics"; "Great Ethics" ("Magna Moralia"); "Eudemian Ethics"; "Politics"; "Oeconomica" (on the good of the family); "Virtues and Vices."
II. Logical: "Categories"; "On Interpretation"; "Analytics" ("Prior" and "Posterior"); "On Sophistical Refutations"; "Topica."
III. Physical: Twenty-six works (some suspect) including astronomy, generation and destruction, the senses, memory, sleep, dreams, life, facts about animals, etc.
IV. "Metaphysics" on being as being.
V. On Art: "Art of Rhetoric" and "Poetics."
VI. Other works including the "Athenian Constitution"; more works also of doubtful authorship.
VII. Fragments of various works such as dialogues on philosophy and literature; and of treatises on rhetoric, politics and metaphysics. The Loeb Classical Library(r) edition of Aristotle is in twenty-three volumes.
II. Logical: "Categories"; "On Interpretation"; "Analytics" ("Prior" and "Posterior"); "On Sophistical Refutations"; "Topica."
III. Physical: Twenty-six works (some suspect) including astronomy, generation and destruction, the senses, memory, sleep, dreams, life, facts about animals, etc.
IV. "Metaphysics" on being as being.
V. On Art: "Art of Rhetoric" and "Poetics."
VI. Other works including the "Athenian Constitution"; more works also of doubtful authorship.
VII. Fragments of various works such as dialogues on philosophy and literature; and of treatises on rhetoric, politics and metaphysics. The Loeb Classical Library(r) edition of Aristotle is in twenty-three volumes.
560 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 323
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358 people want to read
About the author
Aristotle
3,946 books5,488 followersAristotle (Greek: Αριστοτέλης; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelian tradition that followed, which set the groundwork for the development of modern science.
Little is known about Aristotle's life. He was born in the city of Stagira in northern Greece during the Classical period. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, and he was brought up by a guardian. At 17 or 18, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of 37 (c. 347 BC). Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, tutored his son Alexander the Great beginning in 343 BC. He established a library in the Lyceum, which helped him to produce many of his hundreds of books on papyrus scrolls.
Though Aristotle wrote many treatises and dialogues for publication, only around a third of his original output has survived, none of it intended for publication. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him. His teachings and methods of inquiry have had a significant impact across the world, and remain a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion.
Aristotle's views profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. The influence of his physical science extended from late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, and was not replaced systematically until the Enlightenment and theories such as classical mechanics were developed. He influenced Judeo-Islamic philosophies during the Middle Ages, as well as Christian theology, especially the Neoplatonism of the Early Church and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church.
Aristotle was revered among medieval Muslim scholars as "The First Teacher", and among medieval Christians like Thomas Aquinas as simply "The Philosopher", while the poet Dante Alighieri called him "the master of those who know". His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, and were studied by medieval scholars such as Pierre Abélard and Jean Buridan. Aristotle's influence on logic continued well into the 19th century. In addition, his ethics, although always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics.
Little is known about Aristotle's life. He was born in the city of Stagira in northern Greece during the Classical period. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, and he was brought up by a guardian. At 17 or 18, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of 37 (c. 347 BC). Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, tutored his son Alexander the Great beginning in 343 BC. He established a library in the Lyceum, which helped him to produce many of his hundreds of books on papyrus scrolls.
Though Aristotle wrote many treatises and dialogues for publication, only around a third of his original output has survived, none of it intended for publication. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him. His teachings and methods of inquiry have had a significant impact across the world, and remain a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion.
Aristotle's views profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. The influence of his physical science extended from late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, and was not replaced systematically until the Enlightenment and theories such as classical mechanics were developed. He influenced Judeo-Islamic philosophies during the Middle Ages, as well as Christian theology, especially the Neoplatonism of the Early Church and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church.
Aristotle was revered among medieval Muslim scholars as "The First Teacher", and among medieval Christians like Thomas Aquinas as simply "The Philosopher", while the poet Dante Alighieri called him "the master of those who know". His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, and were studied by medieval scholars such as Pierre Abélard and Jean Buridan. Aristotle's influence on logic continued well into the 19th century. In addition, his ethics, although always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 25, 2013
How to talk about what we think about what we talk about.
August 11, 2025
This is easily the most lost I've ever been in trying to make sense of anything non-mathematical. From what I was able to interpret, Categories and On Interpretation are two very cool texts; a large part of both respectively is focused on 1. providing an analysis of language, its composition/categorisation of its parts, and 2. from these how language makes claims about the world , and 2. how from the composition of language we move from more particular claims to universal claims within language about the objects to which language refers. From this, Aristotle seems to be laying down some fundamental rules methodologically with which a philosophical analysis must begin. Some really interesting (and kind of bizarre?) comments are made regarding modal logics in On Interpretation's later chapters. Reading Prior Analytics is akin to trying to digest a boulder, I do not have the stomach for it. All I can say is that all near-inscrutable book are bad for one's digestion; prior analytics is an near-inscrutable book; prior analytics is bad for one's digestion.
January 7, 2023
The Prior Analytics is a baffling book. Judging from the many commentaries that contradict each other in their attempt to make sense of Aristotle’s rules of demonstration and logic, I don’t think it’s simply my own shortcomings at play, though it is a humbling read. This is a brain-activating endeavour and there are magnificent insights about demonstration and knowledge in here if you can keep moving through the baffling parts. One read is not enough, but it was enough for me for now. Posterior Analytics, here I come!
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April 17, 2024Prior Analytics 26/3/24 -
More engaging than the first time, but still very difficult to read. I was probably too harsh in my previous assessment. The essential points made about syllogism are useful and important, but I do think a basic overview might be more beneficial to read than this (as Aristotle is so detail-oriented).
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Categories read 14/9 - 19/9
Certainly helpful for understanding how we use language, but I personally can’t say it’s the most fascinating text. Mostly I think this is because of the awareness that what he’s dealing with doesn’t necessarily describe reality, but describes how we perceive things and talk about them. For some that will appeal, but it’s not my particular area of interest.
Note (9/12/21): After attempting to read On Interpretation and Prior Analytics, I can say with certainty that this kind of investigation holds no appeal for me whatsoever. I will instead take away an unintended lesson: pedantry is not only dull, but it distracts us from what is truly important.
More engaging than the first time, but still very difficult to read. I was probably too harsh in my previous assessment. The essential points made about syllogism are useful and important, but I do think a basic overview might be more beneficial to read than this (as Aristotle is so detail-oriented).
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Categories read 14/9 - 19/9
Certainly helpful for understanding how we use language, but I personally can’t say it’s the most fascinating text. Mostly I think this is because of the awareness that what he’s dealing with doesn’t necessarily describe reality, but describes how we perceive things and talk about them. For some that will appeal, but it’s not my particular area of interest.
Note (9/12/21): After attempting to read On Interpretation and Prior Analytics, I can say with certainty that this kind of investigation holds no appeal for me whatsoever. I will instead take away an unintended lesson: pedantry is not only dull, but it distracts us from what is truly important.
Read
December 26, 2009Yes, we translated some (a v little) of this from the Greek. It was brutal (Aristotle is all particles: 'thing man being does essence of animal this being was not is.' Like that.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews