Aristotle’s Modal Syllogistic

Aristotle’s Modal Syllogistic
Author: Marko Malink
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2013-11-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0674727541

Aristotle was the founder not only of logic but also of modal logic. In the Prior Analytics he developed a complex system of modal syllogistic which, while influential, has been disputed since antiquity—and is today widely regarded as incoherent. In this meticulously argued new study, Marko Malink presents a major reinterpretation of Aristotle’s modal syllogistic. Combining analytic rigor with keen sensitivity to historical context, he makes clear that the modal syllogistic forms a consistent, integrated system of logic, one that is closely related to other areas of Aristotle’s philosophy. Aristotle’s modal syllogistic differs significantly from modern modal logic. Malink considers the key to understanding the Aristotelian version to be the notion of predication discussed in the Topics—specifically, its theory of predicables (definition, genus, differentia, proprium, and accident) and the ten categories (substance, quantity, quality, and so on). The predicables introduce a distinction between essential and nonessential predication. In contrast, the categories distinguish between substantial and nonsubstantial predication. Malink builds on these insights in developing a semantics for Aristotle’s modal propositions, one that verifies the ancient philosopher’s claims of the validity and invalidity of modal inferences. Malink recognizes some limitations of this reconstruction, acknowledging that his proof of syllogistic consistency depends on introducing certain complexities that Aristotle could not have predicted. Nonetheless, Aristotle’s Modal Syllogistic brims with bold ideas, richly supported by close readings of the Greek texts, and offers a fresh perspective on the origins of modal logic.

Aristotle's Modal Proofs

Aristotle's Modal Proofs
Author: Adriane Rini
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2010-12-13
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9400700504

Aristotle’s modal syllogistic is his study of patterns of reasoning about necessity and possibility. Many scholars think the modal syllogistic is incoherent, a ‘realm of darkness’. Others think it is coherent, but devise complicated formal modellings to mimic Aristotle’s results. This volume provides a simple interpretation of Aristotle’s modal syllogistic using standard predicate logic. Rini distinguishes between red terms, such as ‘horse’, ‘plant’ or ‘man’, which name things in virtue of features those things must have, and green terms, such as ‘moving’, which name things in virtue of their non-necessary features. By applying this distinction to the Prior Analytics, Rini shows how traditional interpretive puzzles about the modal syllogistic melt away and the simple structure of Aristotle’s own proofs is revealed. The result is an applied logic which provides needed links between Aristotle’s views of science and logical demonstration. The volume is particularly valuable to researchers and students of the history of logic, Aristotle’s theory of modality, and the philosophy of logic in general.

Aristotle's Modal Logic

Aristotle's Modal Logic
Author: Richard Patterson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2002-08-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521522335

This 1995 book argues that a proper understanding of Aristotle's modal logic requires an appreciation of its connection to the metaphysics.

Logical Modalities from Aristotle to Carnap

Logical Modalities from Aristotle to Carnap
Author: Adriane Rini
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2016-09-15
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1107077885

Introduces readers to the history of necessity and possibility, two modal concepts which play a key role in philosophy.

Substances and Universals in Aristotle's Metaphysics

Substances and Universals in Aristotle's Metaphysics
Author: Theodore Scaltsas
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2010
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780801476358

In this book, Theodore Scaltsas brings the insights of contemporary philosophy to bear on a classic problem in metaphysics that stems from Aristotle's theory of substance. Scaltsas provides an analysis of the enigmatic notions of potentiality and actuality, which he uses to explain Aristotle's substantial holism by showing how the concrete and the abstract parts of a substance form a dynamic, diachronic whole.

The Logic of Essentialism

The Logic of Essentialism
Author: P. Thom
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9400916639

Aristotle's modal syllogistic has been an object of study ever since the time of Theophrastus; but these studies (apart from an intense flowering in the Middle Ages) have been somewhat desultory. Remarkably, in the 1990s several new lines of research have appeared, with series of original publications by Fred Johnson, Richard Patterson and Ulrich Nortmann. Johnson presented for the first time a formal semantics adequate to a de re reading of the apodeictic syllogistic; this was based on a simple intuition linking the modal syllogistic to Aristotelian metaphysics. Nortmann developed an ingenious de dicto analysis. Patterson articulated the links (both theoretical and genetic) between the modal syllogistic and the metaphysics, using an analysis which strictly speaking is neither de re nor de dicto. My own studies in this field date from 1976, when my colleague Peter Roeper and I jointly wrote a paper "Aristotle's apodeictic syllogisms" for the XXIInd History of Logic Conference in Krakow. This paper contained the disjunctive reading of particular affirmative apodeictic propositions, which I still favour. Nonetheless, I did not consider that paper's results decisive or comprehensive enough to publish, and my 1981 book The Syllogism contained no treatment of the modal syllogism. The paper's ideas lay dormant till 1989, when I read Johnson's and Patterson's initial articles. I began publishing on the topic in 1991. Gradually my thoughts acquired a certain comprehensiveness and systematicity, till in 1993 I was able to take a semester's sabbatical to write up a draft of this book.

The Ancient Commentators on Plato and Aristotle

The Ancient Commentators on Plato and Aristotle
Author: Miira Tuominen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2016-09-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317492587

In late antiquity the works of Plato and Aristotle were subject to intense study, which eventually led to the development of a new literary form, the philosophical commentary. Until recently these commentaries were understood chiefly as sources of information for the masters - Plato and Aristotle - they commented upon. However, in recent years, it has become increasingly acknowledged that the commentators themselves - Aspasius, Alexander, Themistius, Porphyry, Proclus, Philoponus, Simplicius and others - even though they worked in the Platonist - Aristotelian framework, contributed to this tradition in original, innovative and significant ways such that their commentaries are philosophically important sources in their own right. This book provides the first systematic introduction to the 'philosophy' of the commentators: their way of doing philosophy and the kind of philosophical problems they found interesting.Although there was no philosophy of the commentators in the sense of a definite set of doctrines, Tuominen shows how the commentary format was nevertheless a vehicle for original philosophical theorizing and argues convincingly that the commentators should take their place alongside other philosophers of antiquity in the history of western philosophy.

Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Prior Analytics 1.14-22

Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Prior Analytics 1.14-22
Author: Ian Mueller
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2014-04-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1472501896

The commentary of Alexander of Aphrodisias on Aristotle's Prior Analytics 1.8-22 is a very important text, being the main ancient commentary with chapters in which Aristotle invented modal logic - the logic of propositions about what is necessary or contingent (possible). The first volume of Ian Mueller's translation covered chapters 1.8-13, and reached as far as the chapter in which Aristotle discussed the notion of contingency. In this, the second volume, the 'greatest' commentator, Alexander, concludes his discussion of Aristotle's modal logic. Aristotle also invented the syllogism, a style of argument involving two premises and a conclusion. Modal propositions can be deployed in syllogisms, and in the chapters included in this volume Aristotle discusses all the syllogisms containing at least one contingent premiss. In each volume, Ian Mueller provides a comprehensive explanation of Alexander's commentary on modal logic as a whole.