Aristotle’s Dialectic — Topics I — Live-Reading

About this event

August 11 \- We are reading chapter 18\, of Topics, Book I, at Bekker lines 108a18–108b33. In chapter 13, we found Aristotle outlining four tools by means of which deductions come about: [ch14] obtaining premises, [ch15] distinguishing in how many ways things are said, [ch16] finding differences, and [ch17] seeing similarities. Chapter 18 will explain how the last three tools can be used to support obtaining premises. . Our main translator is Robin Smith: Topics Books I & VIII (Oxford University Press, 1997). . Smith in his helpful "Introduction" forewarns us that because we don't know what we are ignorant of, we barbarians don't know yet what dialectic is or why we need it. So there will be learning pain involved as we bootstrap ourselves toward knowing and practicing what we will learn. The payoff will be tremendous and will be commensurate with personal effort. . A new reading adventure beckons you and your willpower. Join us. . \-\-\-\- . Organon means "instrument," as in, instrument for thought and speech. The term was given by ancient commentators to a group of Aristotle's treatises comprising his logical works. Organon \|\-\- Categories \-\-\-\- 2023\.02\.28 \|\-\- On Interpretation \-\-\-\- 2023\.12\.12 \|\-\- Topics \-\-\-\- 2025\.10\.21 \|\-\- Topics Book II ---- 2026.08.?? \|\-\- Sophistical Refutations \|\-\- *Rhetoric*\* \|\-\- Prior Analytics \|\-\- Posterior Analytics (\* Robin Smith, author of SEP's 2022 entry "Aristotle's Logic (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-logic/#AriLogWorOrg)," argues that Rhetoric should be part of the Organon.) Whenever we do any human thing, we can either do it well or do it poorly. With instruments, we can do things either better, faster, and more; or worse, slower, and less. That is, with instruments they either augment or diminish our doings. Do thinking and speaking (and writing and listening) require instruments? Yes. We do need physical instruments like microphones, megaphones, pens, papers, computers. But we also need mental instruments: grammar, vocabulary words, evidence-gathering techniques, big-picture integration methods, persuasion strategies. Thinking while sitting meditatively all day in a lotus position doesn't require much instrumentation of any kind, but thinking and speaking well in the sense of project planning, problem-solving, negotiating, arguing, deliberating--that is, the active doings in the world (whether romantic, social, commercial, or political)--do require well-honed mental instruments. That's the Organon in a nutshell. Are you an up-and-coming human being, a doer, go-getter, achiever, or at least you're choosing to become one? You need to wield the Organon. Join us.