The Organon (Ancient Greek: Ὄργανον, meaning "instrument, tool, organ") is the standard collection of Aristotle's six works on logical analysis and dialectic. The name Organon was given by Aristotle's followers, the Peripatetics, who maintained against the Stoics that Logic was "an instrument" of Philosophy.
Aristotle never uses the title Organon to refer to his logical works. The book, according to M. Barthélemy St. Hilaire, was not called "Organon" before the 15th century, and the treatises were collected into one volume, as is supposed, about the time of Andronicus of Rhodes; and it was translated into Latin by Boethius about the 6th century.
The six works of Organon are as follows:
| Bekker number | Work | Latin name |
| Logic | ||
| Organon | ||
| 1a | Categories | Categoriae |
| 16a | On Interpretation | De Interpretatione |
| 24a | Prior Analytics | Analytica Priora |
| 71a | Posterior Analytics | Analytica Posteriora |
| 100a | Topics | Topica |
| 164a | On Sophistical Refutations | De Sophisticis Elenchis |
Constitution of the texts
The order of the works is not chronological (which is now hard to determine) but was deliberately chosen by Theophrastus to constitute a well-structured system. Indeed, parts of them seem to be a scheme of a lecture on logic. The arrangement of the works was made by Andronicus of Rhodes around 40 BC.
Aristotle's Metaphysics has some points of overlap with the works making up the Organon but is not traditionally considered part of it; additionally, there are works on logic attributed, with varying degrees of plausibility, to Aristotle that were not known to the Peripatetics.
- The Categories (Latin: Categoriae) introduces Aristotle's 10-fold classification of that which exists: substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, situation, condition, action, and passion.
- On Interpretation (Latin: De Interpretatione) introduces Aristotle's conception of proposition and judgement, and the various relations between affirmative, negative, universal, and particular propositions. Aristotle discusses the square of opposition or square of Apuleius in Chapter 7 and its appendix, Chapter 8. Chapter 9 deals with the problem of future contingents.
- The Prior Analytics (Latin: Analytica Priora) introduces his syllogistic method (see term logic), argues for its correctness, and discusses inductive inference.
- The Posterior Analytics (Latin: Analytica Posteriora) deals with definition, demonstration, inductive reasoning, and scientific knowledge.
- The Topics (Latin: Topica) treats issues in constructing valid arguments, and inference that is probable, rather than certain. It is in this treatise that Aristotle mentions the Predicables, later discussed by Porphyry and the scholastic logicians.
- The On Sophistical Refutations (Latin: De Sophisticis Elenchis) gives a treatment of logical fallacies, and provides a key link to Aristotle's tractate on rhetoric.
Whereas the Organon of the Latin Scholastic tradition comprises only the above six works, its independent reception in the Arabic medieval world saw appended to this list of works Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics.
Influence
The Organon was used in the school founded by Aristotle at the Lyceum, and some parts of the works seem to be a scheme of a lecture on logic. So much so that after Aristotle's death, his publishers (Andronicus of Rhodes in 50 BC, for example) collected these works.
Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, much of Aristotle's work was lost in the Latin West. The Categories and On Interpretation are the only significant logical works that were available in the early Middle Ages. These had been translated into Latin by Boethius, along with Porphyry's Isagoge, which was also translated into Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffa' via a Syriac intermediary. The other logical works were not available in Western Christendom until translated into Latin in the 12th century. However, the original Greek texts had been preserved in the Greek-speaking lands of the Eastern Roman Empire (aka Byzantium). In the mid-twelfth century, James of Venice translated into Latin the Posterior Analytics from Greek manuscripts found in Constantinople.
The books of Aristotle were available in the early Muslim world, and after 750 AD Muslims had most of them[dubious – discuss], including the Organon, translated into Arabic, normally via earlier Syriac translations. They were studied by Islamic and Jewish scholars, including Rabbi Moses Maimonides (1135–1204) and the Muslim Judge Ibn Rushd, known in the West as Averroes (1126–1198); both were originally from Córdoba, Spain, although the former left Iberia and by 1168 lived in Egypt.
All the major scholastic philosophers wrote commentaries on the Organon. Aquinas, Ockham and Scotus wrote commentaries on On Interpretation. Ockham and Scotus wrote commentaries on the Categories and Sophistical Refutations. Grosseteste wrote an influential commentary on the Posterior Analytics.
In the Enlightenment there was a revival of interest in logic as the basis of rational enquiry, and a number of texts, most successfully the Port-Royal Logic, polished Aristotelian term logic for pedagogy. During this period, while the logic certainly was based on that of Aristotle, Aristotle's writings themselves were less often the basis of study. There was a tendency in this period to regard the logical systems of the day to be complete, which in turn no doubt stifled innovation in this area. However, Francis Bacon published his Novum Organum ("The New Organon") as a scathing attack in 1620.Immanuel Kant thought that there was nothing else to invent after the work of Aristotle, and the famous logic historian Karl von Prantl claimed that any logician who said anything new about logic was "confused, stupid or perverse." These examples illustrate the force of influence which Aristotle's works on logic had. Indeed, he had already become known by the Scholastics (medieval Christian scholars) as "The Philosopher", due to the influence he had upon medieval theology and philosophy. His influence continued into the Early Modern period and Organon was the basis of school philosophy even in the beginning of the 18th century. Since the logical innovations of the 19th century, particularly the formulation of modern predicate logic, Aristotelian logic had for a time fallen out of favor among many analytic philosophers.
However, the logic historian John Corcoran and others have shown that the works of George Boole and Gottlob Frege—which laid the groundwork for modern mathematical logic—each represent a continuation and extension to Aristotle's logic and in no way contradict or displace it. Boole fully accepted and endorsed Aristotle's logic, and Frege included Aristotle's square of opposition at the end of his groundbreaking Begriffsschrift to show the harmony of his theory with the Aristotelian tradition.
See also
- Ignoratio elenchi
Notes
- Owen, Octavius Freire (1853). "Introduction". The Organon, Or Logical Treatises, of Aristotle. With the Introduction of Porphyry. Vol. 1. Aristotle. H.G. Bohn.
- Hammond, p. 64, "Andronicus Rhodus"
- Edward N. Zalta, ed. (18 March 2000). "Aristotle's Logic, < Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy>". Retrieved 2020-12-19.
- See Black, Deborah L., Logic and Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics in medieval Arabic philosophy, p. 1. Also the “Organon” entry at the SEP.
- The Teaching Company — Birth of the Modern Mind
- Alain Badiou, Theoretical Writings, p 172
- Rutherford, Donald (2006). The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. p. 170ff. ISBN 9780521822428.
- George Boole. 1854/2003. The Laws of Thought, facsimile of 1854 edition, with an introduction by J. Corcoran. Buffalo: Prometheus Books (2003). Reviewed by James van Evra in Philosophy in Review.24 (2004) 167–169.
- John Corcoran, Aristotle's Prior Analytics and Boole's Laws of Thought, History and Philosophy of Logic, vol. 24 (2003), pp. 261–288.
- Jean-Yves Béziau “Is modern logic non-Aristotelian?”, in Vladimir Markin, Dmitry Zaitsev (eds.), The Logical Legacy of Nikolai Vasiliev and Modern Logic, Cham, Springer, 2017, pp. 19-42.
References
Primary sources
- Categories, translated by Edghill, E. M., The University of Adelaide: eBooks @ Adelaide, 2007, archived from the original on 2018-12-11, retrieved 2019-01-26.
- On Interpretation, translated by Edghill, E. M., The University of Adelaide: eBooks @ Adelaide, 2007, archived from the original on 2018-02-16, retrieved 2019-01-26.
- Prior Analytics, translated by Jenkinson, A. J., The University of Adelaide: eBooks @ Adelaide, 2007, archived from the original on 2015-09-07, retrieved 2019-01-26.
- Posterior Analytics, translated by Mure, G. R. G., The University of Adelaide: eBooks @ Adelaide, 2007, archived from the original on 2018-12-10, retrieved 2019-01-26.
- Topics, translated by Pickard-Cambridge, W. A., The University of Adelaide: eBooks @ Adelaide, 2007, archived from the original on 2016-03-04, retrieved 2019-01-26.
- On Sophistical Refutations, translated by Pickard-Cambridge, W. A., The University of Adelaide: eBooks @ Adelaide, 2007, archived from the original on 2015-09-07, retrieved 2015-04-21.
Studies
- Bocheński, I. M., 1951. Ancient Formal Logic. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
- Jan Łukasiewicz, 1951. Aristotle's Syllogistic, from the Standpoint of Modern Formal Logic. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Lea, Jonathan 1980. Aristotle and Logical Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Monteil, Jean-François La transmission d’Aristote par les Arabes à la chrétienté occidentale: une trouvaille relative au De Interpretatione, Revista Española de Filosofia Medieval 11: 181-195
- Monteil, Jean-François Isidor Pollak et les deux traductions arabes différentes du De interpretatione d’Aristote, Revue d’Études Anciennes 107: 29-46 (2005).
- Monteil, Jean-François Une exception allemande: la traduction du De Interpretatione par le Professeur Gohlke: la note 10 sur les indéterminées d’Aristote, Revues de Études Anciennes 103: 409–427 (2001).
- Parry and Hacker, 1991. Aristotelian Logic. Albany: State University of New York Press.
- Rose, Lynn E., 1968. Aristotle's Syllogistic. Springfield, Ill.: Clarence C. Thomas.
- Whitaker, C.W.A. 1996. Aristotle's De interpretatione. Contradiction and Dialectic, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Veatch, Henry B., 1969. Two Logics: The Conflict between Classical and Neo-Analytic Philosophy. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
External links
- Smith, Robin. "Aristotle's Logic". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy..
- Parsons, Terence. "Traditional Square of Opposition". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy..
- Aristotle: Logic entry by Louis Groarke in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Turner, W., 1903. 'History of Philosophy'. Ginn and Co, Boston. All references in this article are to Chapter nine on 'Aristotle'.
- Aristotle Organon And Other Works e-book at archive.org.
- Interactive Syllogistic Machine for Aristotle's Logic, a web-based syllogistic machine for exploring fallacies, figures, terms, and modes of syllogisms.
The Organon Ancient Greek Ὄrganon meaning instrument tool organ is the standard collection of Aristotle s six works on logical analysis and dialectic The name Organon was given by Aristotle s followers the Peripatetics who maintained against the Stoics that Logic was an instrument of Philosophy OrganonRoman copy in marble of a Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by Lysippos c 330 BC with modern alabaster mantle Aristotle never uses the title Organon to refer to his logical works The book according to M Barthelemy St Hilaire was not called Organon before the 15th century and the treatises were collected into one volume as is supposed about the time of Andronicus of Rhodes and it was translated into Latin by Boethius about the 6th century The six works of Organon are as follows Bekker number Work Latin nameLogicOrganon1a Categories Categoriae16a On Interpretation De Interpretatione24a Prior Analytics Analytica Priora71a Posterior Analytics Analytica Posteriora100a Topics Topica164a On Sophistical Refutations De Sophisticis ElenchisConstitution of the textsThe order of the works is not chronological which is now hard to determine but was deliberately chosen by Theophrastus to constitute a well structured system Indeed parts of them seem to be a scheme of a lecture on logic The arrangement of the works was made by Andronicus of Rhodes around 40 BC Aristotle s Metaphysics has some points of overlap with the works making up the Organon but is not traditionally considered part of it additionally there are works on logic attributed with varying degrees of plausibility to Aristotle that were not known to the Peripatetics The Categories Latin Categoriae introduces Aristotle s 10 fold classification of that which exists substance quantity quality relation place time situation condition action and passion On Interpretation Latin De Interpretatione introduces Aristotle s conception of proposition and judgement and the various relations between affirmative negative universal and particular propositions Aristotle discusses the square of opposition or square of Apuleius in Chapter 7 and its appendix Chapter 8 Chapter 9 deals with the problem of future contingents The Prior Analytics Latin Analytica Priora introduces his syllogistic method see term logic argues for its correctness and discusses inductive inference The Posterior Analytics Latin Analytica Posteriora deals with definition demonstration inductive reasoning and scientific knowledge The Topics Latin Topica treats issues in constructing valid arguments and inference that is probable rather than certain It is in this treatise that Aristotle mentions the Predicables later discussed by Porphyry and the scholastic logicians The On Sophistical Refutations Latin De Sophisticis Elenchis gives a treatment of logical fallacies and provides a key link to Aristotle s tractate on rhetoric Whereas the Organon of the Latin Scholastic tradition comprises only the above six works its independent reception in the Arabic medieval world saw appended to this list of works Aristotle s Rhetoric and Poetics InfluenceThe Organon was used in the school founded by Aristotle at the Lyceum and some parts of the works seem to be a scheme of a lecture on logic So much so that after Aristotle s death his publishers Andronicus of Rhodes in 50 BC for example collected these works Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century much of Aristotle s work was lost in the Latin West The Categories and On Interpretation are the only significant logical works that were available in the early Middle Ages These had been translated into Latin by Boethius along with Porphyry s Isagoge which was also translated into Arabic by Ibn al Muqaffa via a Syriac intermediary The other logical works were not available in Western Christendom until translated into Latin in the 12th century However the original Greek texts had been preserved in the Greek speaking lands of the Eastern Roman Empire aka Byzantium In the mid twelfth century James of Venice translated into Latin the Posterior Analytics from Greek manuscripts found in Constantinople The books of Aristotle were available in the early Muslim world and after 750 AD Muslims had most of them dubious discuss including the Organon translated into Arabic normally via earlier Syriac translations They were studied by Islamic and Jewish scholars including Rabbi Moses Maimonides 1135 1204 and the Muslim Judge Ibn Rushd known in the West as Averroes 1126 1198 both were originally from Cordoba Spain although the former left Iberia and by 1168 lived in Egypt All the major scholastic philosophers wrote commentaries on the Organon Aquinas Ockham and Scotus wrote commentaries on On Interpretation Ockham and Scotus wrote commentaries on the Categories and Sophistical Refutations Grosseteste wrote an influential commentary on the Posterior Analytics In the Enlightenment there was a revival of interest in logic as the basis of rational enquiry and a number of texts most successfully the Port Royal Logic polished Aristotelian term logic for pedagogy During this period while the logic certainly was based on that of Aristotle Aristotle s writings themselves were less often the basis of study There was a tendency in this period to regard the logical systems of the day to be complete which in turn no doubt stifled innovation in this area However Francis Bacon published his Novum Organum The New Organon as a scathing attack in 1620 Immanuel Kant thought that there was nothing else to invent after the work of Aristotle and the famous logic historian Karl von Prantl claimed that any logician who said anything new about logic was confused stupid or perverse These examples illustrate the force of influence which Aristotle s works on logic had Indeed he had already become known by the Scholastics medieval Christian scholars as The Philosopher due to the influence he had upon medieval theology and philosophy His influence continued into the Early Modern period and Organon was the basis of school philosophy even in the beginning of the 18th century Since the logical innovations of the 19th century particularly the formulation of modern predicate logic Aristotelian logic had for a time fallen out of favor among many analytic philosophers However the logic historian John Corcoran and others have shown that the works of George Boole and Gottlob Frege which laid the groundwork for modern mathematical logic each represent a continuation and extension to Aristotle s logic and in no way contradict or displace it Boole fully accepted and endorsed Aristotle s logic and Frege included Aristotle s square of opposition at the end of his groundbreaking Begriffsschrift to show the harmony of his theory with the Aristotelian tradition See alsoIgnoratio elenchiNotesOwen Octavius Freire 1853 Introduction The Organon Or Logical Treatises of Aristotle With the Introduction of Porphyry Vol 1 Aristotle H G Bohn Hammond p 64 Andronicus Rhodus Edward N Zalta ed 18 March 2000 Aristotle s Logic lt Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy gt Retrieved 2020 12 19 See Black Deborah L Logic and Aristotle s Rhetoric and Poetics in medieval Arabic philosophy p 1 Also the Organon entry at the SEP The Teaching Company Birth of the Modern Mind Alain Badiou Theoretical Writings p 172 Rutherford Donald 2006 The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy Cambridge University Press p 170ff ISBN 9780521822428 George Boole 1854 2003 The Laws of Thought facsimile of 1854 edition with an introduction by J Corcoran Buffalo Prometheus Books 2003 Reviewed by James van Evra in Philosophy in Review 24 2004 167 169 John Corcoran Aristotle s Prior Analytics and Boole s Laws of Thought History and Philosophy of Logic vol 24 2003 pp 261 288 Jean Yves Beziau Is modern logic non Aristotelian in Vladimir Markin Dmitry Zaitsev eds The Logical Legacy of Nikolai Vasiliev and Modern Logic Cham Springer 2017 pp 19 42 ReferencesPrimary sources Categories translated by Edghill E M The University of Adelaide eBooks Adelaide 2007 archived from the original on 2018 12 11 retrieved 2019 01 26 On Interpretation translated by Edghill E M The University of Adelaide eBooks Adelaide 2007 archived from the original on 2018 02 16 retrieved 2019 01 26 Prior Analytics translated by Jenkinson A J The University of Adelaide eBooks Adelaide 2007 archived from the original on 2015 09 07 retrieved 2019 01 26 Posterior Analytics translated by Mure G R G The University of Adelaide eBooks Adelaide 2007 archived from the original on 2018 12 10 retrieved 2019 01 26 Topics translated by Pickard Cambridge W A The University of Adelaide eBooks Adelaide 2007 archived from the original on 2016 03 04 retrieved 2019 01 26 On Sophistical Refutations translated by Pickard Cambridge W A The University of Adelaide eBooks Adelaide 2007 archived from the original on 2015 09 07 retrieved 2015 04 21 Studies Bochenski I M 1951 Ancient Formal Logic Amsterdam North Holland Jan Lukasiewicz 1951 Aristotle s Syllogistic from the Standpoint of Modern Formal Logic Oxford Clarendon Press Lea Jonathan 1980 Aristotle and Logical Theory Cambridge Cambridge University Press Monteil Jean Francois La transmission d Aristote par les Arabes a la chretiente occidentale une trouvaille relative au De Interpretatione Revista Espanola de Filosofia Medieval 11 181 195 Monteil Jean Francois Isidor Pollak et les deux traductions arabes differentes du De interpretatione d Aristote Revue d Etudes Anciennes 107 29 46 2005 Monteil Jean Francois Une exception allemande la traduction du De Interpretatione par le Professeur Gohlke la note 10 sur les indeterminees d Aristote Revues de Etudes Anciennes 103 409 427 2001 Parry and Hacker 1991 Aristotelian Logic Albany State University of New York Press Rose Lynn E 1968 Aristotle s Syllogistic Springfield Ill Clarence C Thomas Whitaker C W A 1996 Aristotle s De interpretatione Contradiction and Dialectic Oxford Clarendon Press Veatch Henry B 1969 Two Logics The Conflict between Classical and Neo Analytic Philosophy Evanston Northwestern University Press External linksWikimedia Commons has media related to Organon Aristotle Wikisource has original text related to this article Organon Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article Organon Smith Robin Aristotle s Logic In Zalta Edward N ed Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Parsons Terence Traditional Square of Opposition In Zalta Edward N ed Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Aristotle Logic entry by Louis Groarke in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Turner W 1903 History of Philosophy Ginn and Co Boston All references in this article are to Chapter nine on Aristotle Aristotle Organon And Other Works e book at archive org Interactive Syllogistic Machine for Aristotle s Logic a web based syllogistic machine for exploring fallacies figures terms and modes of syllogisms
