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Posterior Analytics/Topica
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.
- GenresPhilosophyClassics
755 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 348
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152 people want to read
About the author
Aristotle
4,342 books5,572 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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May 24, 2013Worth going back to - the argumentative strategies of contemporary analytic philosophy feel a lot like the dialectics described in Topica and I still want to figure out exactly how endoxa function there and in the rest of Aristotle's work.
August 11, 2020
Enjoyed this book quite a bit more than Prior Analytics. Aristotle here builds upon the formal logic explained in Prior Analytics to explore how knowledge can be obtained, which types of knowledge are superior to others, and the validity of various explanations for how scientific knowledge is obtained. A fascinating consideration of how we know anything and what can be truly known.
I also found both some fairly entertaining examples of flawed scientific knowledge of the time and some new knowledge that is accurate but previously unknown to me, like the explanation of thunder being the extinguishing of fire in the clouds, or the explanation of the coagulation of sap at the leaf’s stem being the reason it dies and falls off as the weather cools, respectively. (should I be embarrassed for not knowing this of deciduous plants? It feels like something an elementary school teacher must have explained at some point in my life, but since went unconsidered by me.)
Overall a worthwhile read and a much easier and faster read than Prior Analytics. Though, if you have not read Prior Analytics, you will likely find this book to be very challenging.
I also found both some fairly entertaining examples of flawed scientific knowledge of the time and some new knowledge that is accurate but previously unknown to me, like the explanation of thunder being the extinguishing of fire in the clouds, or the explanation of the coagulation of sap at the leaf’s stem being the reason it dies and falls off as the weather cools, respectively. (should I be embarrassed for not knowing this of deciduous plants? It feels like something an elementary school teacher must have explained at some point in my life, but since went unconsidered by me.)
Overall a worthwhile read and a much easier and faster read than Prior Analytics. Though, if you have not read Prior Analytics, you will likely find this book to be very challenging.
May 8, 2022
They call me Ben Shapiro the way I Fact and Logic
April 30, 2012
One bit of evidence that I'm a geek: I get excited that I can read Aristotle.
Back in grad school I really liked the Posterior Analytics and wanted to re-read it as part of my reading back through elements of the philosophical canon. This time I wasn't as engaged by it, presumably because it does not align as closely with my current interests as it did in grad school in the nineties. The closing pages, which discuss the limitations of scientific knowledge, are the best.
While reading, I was reminded powerfully of how different philosophical reasoning and debate is from the way most debate now occurs in our wider culture. In philosophy you must present an argument for your idea and then others look for and point out the weak points in the argument, compelling you to strengthen or abandon it.
I think one reason I get so easily annoyed with some people and their views is that there is a correct way to argue and there are things that are true and right. We may have a constitutional right to believe whatever, but we do not have a logical, rational "right" to.
Back in grad school I really liked the Posterior Analytics and wanted to re-read it as part of my reading back through elements of the philosophical canon. This time I wasn't as engaged by it, presumably because it does not align as closely with my current interests as it did in grad school in the nineties. The closing pages, which discuss the limitations of scientific knowledge, are the best.
While reading, I was reminded powerfully of how different philosophical reasoning and debate is from the way most debate now occurs in our wider culture. In philosophy you must present an argument for your idea and then others look for and point out the weak points in the argument, compelling you to strengthen or abandon it.
I think one reason I get so easily annoyed with some people and their views is that there is a correct way to argue and there are things that are true and right. We may have a constitutional right to believe whatever, but we do not have a logical, rational "right" to.
January 10, 2015
A handbook, not a novel. Essential to an educated community.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews