Causality, scientific explanation and syllogistic in Aristotle’s posterior analytics

• Grant number: 13/04519-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: October 06, 2013
• End date: December 05, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Lucas Angioni
• Grantee: Breno Andrade Zuppolini
• Supervisor: David Charles
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Oxford, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 11/14898-3 - Formal and Ontological Aspects of Aristotle's Philosophy of Science, BP.MS

Abstract

The canonical model of argumentation in Aristotelian syllogistic corresponds to a formal scheme with two premises articulating only three terms. Why does Aristotle insist in such a triadic formal scheme? In the research here proposed, I will attempt to indicate one of the possible reasons. In Posterior Analytics II 16-17, Aristotle seems to adopt a thesis according to which the apprehension of causal relations and the formulation of scientific explanations involve the consideration of three items: (i) the "cause", (ii) "that of which it is cause" or "the thing caused" and (iii) "that for which it is cause". While the first two items integrate the explanatory link itself (explanans and explanandum), the third one denotes the class of individuals we take as objects of scientific investigation and in which that causal phenomenon is verified. Since causality is better described, not as a two-place relation, but as a three-place one, we find worthwhile to explore the hypothesis that Aristotle proposed a triadic formal scheme to scientific demonstration having in mind the tripartite structure of causality to be grasped thereby. (AU)