European University Institute Library

Aristotle on knowledge and learning, the posterior analytics, David Bronstein

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

Aristotle on knowledge and learning

electronic resource

dictionariesbibliography

951230022

David Bronstein

Oxford scholarship online.

the posterior analytics

Aristotle's Posterior Analytics is one of the most important, and difficult, works in the history of western philosophy. This book sheds new light on this challenging text by arguing that it is coherently structured around two themes of enduring philosophical interest: knowledge and learning. The Posterior Analytics, this book argues, is a sustained examination of scientific knowledge: what it is and how it is acquired. Aristotle first discusses two principal forms of scientific knowledge (epistēmē and nous). He then provides a compelling account, in reverse order, of the types of learning one needs to undertake in order to acquire them. The Posterior Analytics thus emerges as an elegantly organized work in which Aristotle describes the mind's ascent from perception of sensible particulars to scientific knowledge of first principles. This book also highlights Plato's influence on Aristotle's text. For each type of learning Aristotle discusses, this book uncovers an instance of Meno's Paradox (a puzzle from Plato's Meno according to which inquiry and learning are impossible) and a solution to it. In addition, this book argues, against current orthodoxy, that Aristotle is committed to the Socratic Picture of inquiry, according to which one should seek what a thing's essence is before seeking its demonstrable attributes and their causes.--, Provided by publisher

General Introduction 1 Meno's Paradox and the Prior Knowledge Requirement Part I Learning by Demonstration 2 Learning by Demonstration 3 Belonging 'In Itself' and Aristotle's Theory of Demonstration 4 Scientific Knowledge and Demonstration Part II Learning by Definition 5 Learning by Definition: Introduction 6 Inquiry in APo 2.1 7 Inquiry in APo 2.2 8 The Socratic Picture of the Order of Inquiry 9 Cause, Essence, and Definition 10 Discovering Causally Complex Essences 11 Subject-Kinds and their Existence 12 Discovering Causally Simple Essences Part III Learning by Induction 13 The Origin and Aim of APo 2.19 Conclusion

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