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reply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, whereas to the aforesaid it is not possible. For this reason
questions of this kind are not dialectical unless the questioner himself draws
distinctions or divisions before expressing them, e.g. ‘Good means this, or
this, does it not?’ For questions of this sort are easily answered by a Yes or a
No. Hence one should endeavour to formulate propositions of this kind in this
form. It is at the same time also perhaps fair to ask the other man how many
meanings of ‘the good’ there are, whenever you have yourself distinguished
and formulated them, and he will not admit them at all.
Any one who keeps on asking one thing for a long time is a bad inquirer.
For if he does so though the person questioned keeps on answering the
questions, clearly he asks a large number of questions, or else asks the same
question a large number of times: in the one case he merely babbles, in the
other he fails to reason: for reasoning always consists of a small number of
premisses. If, on the other hand, he does it because the person questioned
does not answer the questions, he is at fault in not taking him to task or
breaking off the discussion.
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3
There are certain hypotheses upon which it is at once difficult to bring, and
easy to stand up to, an argument. Such (e.g.) are those things which stand first
and those which stand last in the order of nature. For the former require
definition, while the latter have to be arrived at through many steps if one
wishes to secure a continuous proof from first principles, or else all discussion
about them wears the air of mere sophistry: for to prove anything is
impossible unless one begins with the appropriate principles, and connects
inference with inference till the last are reached. Now to define first principles
is just what answerers do not care to do, nor do they pay any attention if the
questioner makes a definition: and yet until it is clear what it is that is
proposed, it is not easy to discuss it. This sort of thing happens particularly in
the case of the first principles: for while the other propositions are shown
through these, these cannot be shown through anything else: we are obliged to
understand every item of that sort by a definition. The inferences, too, that lie
too close to the first principle are hard to treat in argument: for it is not
possible to bring many arguments in regard to them, because of the small
number of those steps, between the conclusion and the principle, whereby the
succeeding propositions have to be shown. The hardest, however, of all
definitions to treat in argument are those that employ terms about which, in
332
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book The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156