The Logic of Essentialism
Subtitle: An Interpretation of Aristotle's Modal Syllogistic (The New Synthese Historical Library)
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Springer
Published: December 31, 1899
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 396
ISBN-13: 9780792339878
Subjects: Ancient Greek & Roman philosophy; Logic; Modality (Logic); Aristotle; Philosophy; Metaphysics; History & Surveys - Medieval; Contributions in modal syllogistic; Philosophy / History, Criticism, Surveys; Essence (Philosophy); Logic, Ancient; Syllogism
First sentence: Tradition accords to Aristotle the title of first logician, and by so doing recognises his primacy in theorising the central logical notions of form, proof and model.
Description: The Logic of Essentialism surveys the major interpretations, ancient, medieval and modern, of Aristotle's Modal Syllogistic. It presents a framework within which these competing interpretations are compared and evaluated. A new interpretation is developed, which agrees in large measure with Aristotle's text, including his theses, methods of proof, and use of examples.

This interpretation reads Aristotle's modal sentences de re, and attaches considerable importance to his use of ecthesis and counter-examples. It features a formal semantic analysis that makes no reference to possible worlds, and it articulates the links, both theoretical and genetic, between the modal syllogistic and Aristotle's essentialist metaphysics.