Praktische Syllogismen bei Aristoteles (original) (raw)

Complete survey of passages in Aristotle that have been used in interpreting Aristotle's so-called Practical Syllogism (PS). Three different contexts in which one could speak of a PS are distinguished: (i) human deliberation, (ii) the illustration of the triggering cause of animal motion, (iii) the teleological ex post explanation of human action. It is argued that: (i) is genuine, but non-deductive reasoning that does not immediately result in action/motion, whereas (ii) is not reasoning proper, but a mere analogy with deductive reasoning. It is concluded that the idea of there being a ‘practical’ kind of reasoning that implies motion is alien to Aristotle’s philosophy of nature. Finally, the relation between (i) and (ii) in Aristotle’s theory of animal motion is discussed.