
HoP 036 - A Principled Stand - Aristotle's Epistemology
History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps
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Aristotle's Principle of Knowledge and Understanding
Demonstrative syllogism needs to be not only a valid argument, but also genuinely explanatory. In our example, an appropriate syllogism might be something like this: giraffes are land animals that eat leaves off tall trees. This leads us then to the first import box that needs to be ticked. Aristotle will point to the feature that links the two premises, he calls this the middle term and say that, in a demonstration, the middle term helps to explain the conclusion. If i really understand hiawatha's having a long neck, it's because i realize that she's a giraffe - her long neck is just one instance of a universal feature that belongs to
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