Aristotle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Aristotle - Essay Example Aristotle argues that genuine understanding of a thing requires a grasp of why that thing is necessarily as it is. Such understanding is best facilitated by or represented in a demonstrative argument. We must proceed deductively from premises more absolutely intelligible than the conclusion to the conclusion by way of a causally explanatory middle term. The premises of demonstrations are themselves indemonstrable and serve as starting points or first principles (archai) within the given domain of inquiry. According to Aristotle, we arrive at these principles by direct derivation from experience, by what is sometimes called "intuitive induction" (epagoge), the results of which are grasped by a special intellectual capacity, nous. Let us follow Aristotle and say that every dialectical argument is either a syllogism or an epagoge (Topics I 12). By 'a dialectical argument' let us mean, as Aristotle does, any argument put forward in conversation, proceeding on premisses admitted by the other party, and not requiring any special knowledge. It follows that every Socratic elenchus is a dialectical argument.