The Supposed Material Cause in Posterior Analytics 2.11

Phronesis ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Nathanael Stein
Keyword(s):  
Posterior Analytics ◽  
Four Causes

Abstract Aristotle presents four causes in Posterior Analytics 2.11, but where we expect matter we find instead the confusing formula, ‘what things being the case, necessarily this is the case’, and an equally confusing example. Some commentators infer that Aristotle is not referring to matter, others that he is but in a non-standard way. I argue that APo. 94a20-34 presents not matter, but determination by general features or facts, including facts about something’s genus. The closest connection to matter is Aristotle’s view that the relation between genus and species is analogous to that between matter and a hylomorphic compound.

Aristotle on Scientific Explanation

Dialogue ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burleigh T. Wilkins
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Explanation ◽  
Formal Treatment ◽  
Posterior Analytics ◽  
Four Causes

The problem. The purpose of this paper is to provide a general discussion of Aristotle's views on scientific explanation, by which I mean a discussion of Aristotle's treatment of scientific explanation, its structure and its principles, as distinct from Aristotle's own principles of explanation. By means of this distinction I hope to be excused from a discussion of Aristotle on form and matter, potentiality and actuality, and the four causes, and to avoid so far as possible the controversy among commentators concerning the respective merits of Aristotlequanaturalist and Aristotlequapre-Thomist Thomist. I wish to be excused from treating these problems in order to approach directly Aristotle's formal treatment of scientific explanation as given in thePosterior Analytics, but if I were to be accused of introducing a distinction between parts of the Aristotelian corpus for which there is insufficient warrant, if I were told that I am making an illegitimate abstraction from the whole of which thePosterior Analyticsis but a part, I should plead not guilty.

Aristotle's Four Causes

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Hennig
Keyword(s):  
Four Causes

Aristotle on Principles as Elements

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Malink
Keyword(s):  
Four Causes

In his discussion of the four causes, Aristotle claims that ‘the hypotheses are material causes of the conclusion’ (Physics 2. 3, MetaphysicsΔ‎ 2). This claim has puzzled commentators since antiquity. It is usually taken to mean that the premisses of any deduction are material causes of the conclusion. By contrast, I argue that the claim does not apply to deductions in general but only to scientific demonstrations. For Aristotle, the theorems of a given science are composites consisting of the indemonstrable premisses from which they are demonstrated. Accordingly, these premisses are elements, and hence material causes, of the theorems. In this way, Aristotle’s claim can be shown to be well motivated and illuminating.

Themistius on Concept Formation

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Roreitner
Keyword(s):  
Concept Formation ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Posterior Analytics ◽  
Original Response ◽  
Rational Learning ◽  
Innate Capacity ◽  
Rational Capacity

Abstract This paper reconstructs the account of concept formation developed in the 4th Century A.D. by Themistius in the most ancient extant commentary on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics. Themistius’ account can be contrasted with two widespread modern interpretations of Aristotle. Unlike psychological empiricists, Themistius ascribes an active role in concept formation to our innate capacity of understanding (νοῦς). Unlike intuitionists, he would not be satisfied by saying that νοῦς “intuits” or “spots” concepts. Rather, the question is what makes our νοῦς capable of “finding” and “recognizing” concepts in experience, and this can only be an understanding prior to all experience. Themistius seems to be responding here to Platonist arguments against Aristotle’s epistemology: postulating a “potential νοῦς” is not enough, for one can apply Meno’s dilemma to it and ask how it can recognize that it has found what it was looking for. But, contrary to the judgment of some modern scholars, Themistius never embraced the theory of recollection either (he rejects it decisively). He argued that both empiricism and Platonist innatism are wrong and developed a middle path marked by a strong interdependence between the perceptive and the rational capacity. This holds for all rational learning, and concept formation is its first stage: to form a concept means to learn something genuinely new, but also to recognize it as falling, e. g., under one of the ten categories. While being presented as a mere “paraphrasis” of Aristotle’s words, Themistius’ account is a well-advised and original response to the epistemological debates of his time.

scholarly journals Monitoring progress with national and subnational health goals by integrating verbal autopsy and medically certified cause of death data

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. e005387
Author(s):  
Tim Adair ◽  
Sonja Firth ◽  
Tint Pa Pa Phyo ◽  
Khin Sandar Bo ◽  
Alan D Lopez
Keyword(s):  
Cause Of Death ◽  
Verbal Autopsy ◽  
Integration Method ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Death Registration ◽  
Chronic Respiratory Diseases ◽  
Health Goals ◽  
Specific Mortality ◽  
Four Causes

IntroductionThe measurement of progress towards many Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and other health goals requires accurate and timely all-cause and cause of death (COD) data. However, existing guidance to countries to calculate these indicators is inadequate for populations with incomplete death registration and poor-quality COD data. We introduce a replicable method to estimate national and subnational cause-specific mortality rates (and hence many such indicators) where death registration is incomplete by integrating data from Medical Certificates of Cause of Death (MCCOD) for hospital deaths with routine verbal autopsy (VA) for community deaths.MethodsThe integration method calculates population-level cause-specific mortality fractions (CSMFs) from the CSMFs of MCCODs and VAs weighted by estimated deaths in hospitals and the community. Estimated deaths are calculated by applying the empirical completeness method to incomplete death registration/reporting. The resultant cause-specific mortality rates are used to estimate SDG Indicator 23: mortality between ages 30 and 70 years from cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. We demonstrate the method using nationally representative data in Myanmar, comprising over 42 000 VAs and 7600 MCCODs.ResultsIn Myanmar in 2019, 89% of deaths were estimated to occur in the community. VAs comprised an estimated 70% of community deaths. Both the proportion of deaths in the community and CSMFs for the four causes increased with older age. We estimated that the probability of dying from any of the four causes between 30 and 70 years was 0.265 for men and 0.216 for women. This indicator is 50% higher if based on CSMFs from the integration of data sources than on MCCOD data from hospitals.ConclusionThis integration method facilitates country authorities to use their data to monitor progress with national and subnational health goals, rather than rely on estimates made by external organisations. The method is particularly relevant given the increasing application of routine VA in country Civil Registration and Vital Statistics systems.

Aristotle’s Definition of Scientific Knowledge (APo 71b 9–12)

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Angioni
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Posterior Analytics ◽  
Way Of Knowing ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Way

In Posterior Analytics 71b9–12, we find Aristotle’s definition of scientific knowledge. The definiens is taken to have only two informative parts: scientific knowledge must be knowledge of the cause and its object must be necessary. However, there is also a contrast between the definiendum and a sophistic way of knowing, which is marked by the expression “kata sumbebekos”. Not much attention has been paid to this contrast. In this paper, I discuss Aristotle’s definition paying due attention to this contrast and to the way it interacts with the two conditions presented in the definiens. I claim that the “necessity” condition ammounts to explanatory appropriateness of the cause.

Demonstration and the Posterior Analytics

2011 ◽  
pp. 258-258
Author(s):  
Teresa Rupp ◽  
Edward Grant ◽  
Stefano Caroti ◽  
Ivan Christov ◽  
Alessandro Palazzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Posterior Analytics
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