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The Parts Of Definitions, Unity, And Sameness In Aristotle's Metaphysics, Mark R. Wheeler
The Parts Of Definitions, Unity, And Sameness In Aristotle's Metaphysics, Mark R. Wheeler
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
First principles (ἀρχάι) are crucial to Aristotle's conception of scientific knowledge (επιστήμη). In the Posterior Analytics, Aristotle teaches us that all scientific knowledge is either knowledge arrived at through demonstration from first principles or knowledge of the first principles themselves. The first principles of a given science are the primary premises (τὰ πρώτα) of that science (Pst. An., 72a7); they express the essential characteristics of the substance about which the given science is concerned; and all other scientific knowledge is derived from the first principles through syllogistic inference.
The first principles of the various sciences are expressed through definition (ὁρισμός). …