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Single Idea 18911
[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 5. Generalisation by mind
]
Full Idea
According to Aristotle, the terms of a language form a finite hierarchy, where the higher terms are predicable of more things than are lower terms.
Gist of Idea
Linguistic terms form a hierarchy, with higher terms predicable of increasing numbers of things
Source
report of Aristotle (Prior Analytics [c.328 BCE]) by George Engelbretsen - Trees, Terms and Truth 3
Book Ref
'The Old New Logic', ed/tr. Oderberg,David S. [MIT 2005], p.35
A Reaction
I would be a bit cautious about placing something precisely in a hierarchy according to how many things it can be predicated of. It is a start, though, in trying to give a decent account of generality, which is a major concept in philosophy.
The
15 ideas
from 'Prior Analytics'
11060
|
Aristotelian syllogisms are three-part, subject-predicate, existentially committed, with laws of thought
[Aristotle, by Hanna]
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13819
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Aristotle's said some Fs are G or some Fs are not G, forgetting that there might be no Fs
[Bostock on Aristotle]
|
22271
|
Aristotle was the first to use schematic letters in logic
[Aristotle, by Potter]
|
18909
|
Aristotelian sentences are made up by one of four 'formative' connectors
[Aristotle, by Engelbretsen]
|
8080
|
Aristotelian identified 256 possible syllogisms, saying that 19 are valid
[Aristotle, by Devlin]
|
13912
|
Aristotle replaced Plato's noun-verb form with unions of pairs of terms by one of four 'copulae'
[Aristotle, by Engelbretsen/Sayward]
|
18896
|
Aristotle places terms at opposite ends, joined by a quantified copula
[Aristotle, by Sommers]
|
3300
|
Aristotle's logic is based on the subject/predicate distinction, which leads him to substances and properties
[Aristotle, by Benardete,JA]
|
8079
|
Aristotelian logic has two quantifiers of the subject ('all' and 'some')
[Aristotle, by Devlin]
|
18911
|
Linguistic terms form a hierarchy, with higher terms predicable of increasing numbers of things
[Aristotle, by Engelbretsen]
|
11149
|
Affirming/denying sentences are universal, particular, or indeterminate
[Aristotle]
|
11148
|
Deduction is when we suppose one thing, and another necessarily follows
[Aristotle]
|
9403
|
There are three different deductions for actual terms, necessary terms and possible terms
[Aristotle]
|
14641
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A deduction is necessary if the major (but not the minor) premise is also necessary
[Aristotle]
|
8071
|
Aristotle listed nineteen valid syllogisms (though a few of them were wrong)
[Aristotle, by Devlin]
|