Aristotles ideas and works and how they connect to Aristotelian Logic

When one hears the phrase Aristotelian logic two ideas come into mind the science of reasoning or an indirect manner of getting to a conclusion . Aristotelian logic , as a science , is the form reasoning using syllogisms wherein the conclusion is derived from two premises with a common factor . In a colloquial manner , when something is said to be of Aristotelian logic it means that it is logic that goes in a roundabout manner of reasoning that may or may not reach a conclusion

To be able to verify where these two concepts of

Aristotelian logic came from it is imperative to study the works of Aristotle regarding logic and the background from which he was approaching his works , for as far as Aristotle was concerned Logic is a matter of rhetoric , not the kind of scientific deduction we know now

Aristotle was a student of Plato , who followed the concept of dialectics to pursue what is true . Dialectics is a process wherein a given hypothesis creates a contradiction which invalidates the truth of the hypothesis in the first place . This is all associated with rhetoric - the art of using speech for persuasion - which is one of the more important disciplines during ancient Greece

It is this method that Aristotle was reacting to when he created his treatise on Logic , which he has referred to not as the logic we know now but rhetoric , verbal reasoning . Although his treatises can be divided into 6 parts covering numerous areas of intellectual thought - namely Logic , Physics , Psychology , Natural Science and Philosophy - this will focus on his works of logic which the Peripatetics , his students and followers , have named the Organon . The Organon is composed of 6 treatises - Categories , On Interpretation , Prior Analytics , Posterior Analytics , s , On Sophistical Refutations

Each treatise in the Organon prepares the reader or the student for the following treatise for it is imperative to understand the prior treatise to fully comprehend the following treatise . Meaning , to be able to fathom the whole of the Organon it is imperative to accept the very foundation which can be found in Categories

In Categories , Aristotle differentiates words from each other for the simple reason that words are supposed to be ambiguous . Things are said to be named 'equivocally ' when , though they have a common name , the definition corresponding with the name differs for each . Thus , a real man and a figure in a picture can both lay claim to the name 'animal yet these are equivocally so named , for , though they have a common name the definition corresponding with the name differs for each . For should any one define in what sense each is an animal , his definition in the one case will be appropriate to that case only ' Following this statement Aristotle goes on and differentiates the words by what is present , meaning innately characteristic , and what is predicable meaning what may be true , of a subject . After which he classifies these words into categories , Expressions which are in no...