Aristotle's previous knowledge and scientific knowledge

Author(s)

Carlos Alexandre Terra

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2009-01-12

Examining board members

Lucas Angioni; Barbara Botter; Roberto Bolzani Filho; Silvio Seno Chibeni; Viviane de Castilho Moreira

• Advisor: Lucas Angioni

Abstract

Our aim is to understand how Aristotle conceives the transition of our previous knowledge of the world to our scientific understanding of it and we will do that by means of judging the presumptions and consequences of his answer to the Menon's paradox and focusing on the scientific methodology found in the Posterior Analytics. In relation to the necessary preliminary knowledge to the edification of science, we will try to characterize its types and also the means by which it can be reached by us. We will also try to settle the properties that the scientific understanding must have in relation to its necessity, universality and explanatory nature. We will mark the precise nature of the scientific conclusion according to the Aristotelian scientific theory, arguing that the attribute demonstrated in the conclusions represents a per se concomitant in relation to its substrate. We want to verify how the different types of demonstrations and definitions correspond to different stages in the organization of the previous knowledge and to different stages in the setting of the proper scientific demonstrations and hereby we will try to understand how these different demonstrations and definitions are related to themselves in order to make the scientist answer the four scientific questions that the scientific investigation must contemplate in its two stages. (AU)