第 4 节
作者:
独来读网 更新:2021-02-25 00:21 字数:9322
Clearly this point is the first term in which it is found to inhere as
the elimination of inferior differentiae proceeds。 Thus the angles
of a brazen isosceles triangle are equal to two right angles: but
eliminate brazen and isosceles and the attribute remains。 'But'…you
may say…'eliminate figure or limit; and the attribute vanishes。' True;
but figure and limit are not the first differentiae whose
elimination destroys the attribute。 'Then what is the first?' If it is
triangle; it will be in virtue of triangle that the attribute
belongs to all the other subjects of which it is predicable; and
triangle is the subject to which it can be demonstrated as belonging
commensurately and universally。
6
Demonstrative knowledge must rest on necessary basic truths; for the
object of scientific knowledge cannot be other than it is。 Now
attributes attaching essentially to their subjects attach
necessarily to them: for essential attributes are either elements in
the essential nature of their subjects; or contain their subjects as
elements in their own essential nature。 (The pairs of opposites
which the latter class includes are necessary because one member or
the other necessarily inheres。) It follows from this that premisses of
the demonstrative syllogism must be connexions essential in the
sense explained: for all attributes must inhere essentially or else be
accidental; and accidental attributes are not necessary to their
subjects。
We must either state the case thus; or else premise that the
conclusion of demonstration is necessary and that a demonstrated
conclusion cannot be other than it is; and then infer that the
conclusion must be developed from necessary premisses。 For though
you may reason from true premisses without demonstrating; yet if
your premisses are necessary you will assuredly demonstrate…in such
necessity you have at once a distinctive character of demonstration。
That demonstration proceeds from necessary premisses is also indicated
by the fact that the objection we raise against a professed
demonstration is that a premiss of it is not a necessary truth…whether
we think it altogether devoid of necessity; or at any rate so far as
our opponent's previous argument goes。 This shows how naive it is to
suppose one's basic truths rightly chosen if one starts with a
proposition which is (1) popularly accepted and (2) true; such as
the sophists' assumption that to know is the same as to possess
knowledge。 For (1) popular acceptance or rejection is no criterion
of a basic truth; which can only be the primary law of the genus
constituting the subject matter of the demonstration; and (2) not
all truth is 'appropriate'。
A further proof that the conclusion must be the development of
necessary premisses is as follows。 Where demonstration is possible;
one who can give no account which includes the cause has no scientific
knowledge。 If; then; we suppose a syllogism in which; though A
necessarily inheres in C; yet B; the middle term of the demonstration;
is not necessarily connected with A and C; then the man who argues
thus has no reasoned knowledge of the conclusion; since this
conclusion does not owe its necessity to the middle term; for though
the conclusion is necessary; the mediating link is a contingent
fact。 Or again; if a man is without knowledge now; though he still
retains the steps of the argument; though there is no change in
himself or in the fact and no lapse of memory on his part; then
neither had he knowledge previously。 But the mediating link; not being
necessary; may have perished in the interval; and if so; though
there be no change in him nor in the fact; and though he will still
retain the steps of the argument; yet he has not knowledge; and
therefore had not knowledge before。 Even if the link has not
actually perished but is liable to perish; this situation is
possible and might occur。 But such a condition cannot be knowledge。
When the conclusion is necessary; the middle through which it was
proved may yet quite easily be non…necessary。 You can in fact infer
the necessary even from a non…necessary premiss; just as you can infer
the true from the not true。 On the other hand; when the middle is
necessary the conclusion must be necessary; just as true premisses
always give a true conclusion。 Thus; if A is necessarily predicated of
B and B of C; then A is necessarily predicated of C。 But when the
conclusion is nonnecessary the middle cannot be necessary either。
Thus: let A be predicated non…necessarily of C but necessarily of B;
and let B be a necessary predicate of C; then A too will be a
necessary predicate of C; which by hypothesis it is not。
To sum up; then: demonstrative knowledge must be knowledge of a
necessary nexus; and therefore must clearly be obtained through a
necessary middle term; otherwise its possessor will know neither the
cause nor the fact that his conclusion is a necessary connexion。
Either he will mistake the non…necessary for the necessary and believe
the necessity of the conclusion without knowing it; or else he will
not even believe it…in which case he will be equally ignorant; whether
he actually infers the mere fact through middle terms or the
reasoned fact and from immediate premisses。
Of accidents that are not essential according to our definition of
essential there is no demonstrative knowledge; for since an
accident; in the sense in which I here speak of it; may also not
inhere; it is impossible to prove its inherence as a necessary
conclusion。 A difficulty; however; might be raised as to why in
dialectic; if the conclusion is not a necessary connexion; such and
such determinate premisses should be proposed in order to deal with
such and such determinate problems。 Would not the result be the same
if one asked any questions whatever and then merely stated one's
conclusion? The solution is that determinate questions have to be put;
not because the replies to them affirm facts which necessitate facts
affirmed by the conclusion; but because these answers are propositions
which if the answerer affirm; he must affirm the conclusion and affirm
it with truth if they are true。
Since it is just those attributes within every genus which are
essential and possessed by their respective subjects as such that
are necessary it is clear that both the conclusions and the
premisses of demonstrations which produce scientific knowledge are
essential。 For accidents are not necessary: and; further; since
accidents are not necessary one does not necessarily have reasoned
knowledge of a conclusion drawn from them (this is so even if the
accidental premisses are invariable but not essential; as in proofs
through signs; for though the conclusion be actually essential; one
will not know it as essential nor know its reason); but to have
reasoned knowledge of a conclusion is to know it through its cause。 We
may conclude that the middle must be consequentially connected with
the minor; and the major with the middle。
7
It follows that we cannot in demonstrating pass from one genus to
another。 We cannot; for instance; prove geometrical truths by
arithmetic。 For there are three elements in demonstration: (1) what is
proved; the conclusion…an attribute inhering essentially in a genus;
(2) the axioms; i。e。 axioms which are premisses of demonstration;
(3) the subject…genus whose attributes; i。e。 essential properties; are
revealed by the demonstration。 The axioms which are premisses of
demonstration may be identical in two or more sciences: but in the
case of two different genera such as arithmetic and geometry you
cannot apply arithmetical demonstration to the properties of
magnitudes unless the magnitudes in question are numbers。 How in
certain cases transference is possible I will explain later。
Arithmetical demonstration and the other sciences likewise
possess; each of them; their own genera; so that if the
demonstration is to pass from one sphere to another; the genus must be
either absolutely or to some extent the same。 If this is not so;
transference is clearly impossible; because the extreme and the middle
terms must be drawn from the same genus: otherwise; as predicated;
they will not be essential and will thus be accidents。 That is why
it cannot be proved by geometry that opposites fall under one science;
nor even that