Commentary on Halper

Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Publication Date

2018

Publisher

Brill Academic Publishers

Source Publication

Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy

Source ISSN

1059-986x

Abstract

Edward Halper's "The Metaphysics of the Syllogism" argues that the ontological ground of valid inference is found in the necessity of the predications that constitute the prem­ises of the sort of syllogism central to Aristotle's theory: demonstration. I further sup­port his conclusion on the basis of a consideration of the title and structure of Aristotle's Analytics, as well as some recent analysis of Aristotle's modal logic. Halper however sug­gests mat the logical form of inference is a result of how the mind sorts out the elements involved in a complex unity. I suggest that it is not primarily the mind that does this work, but language. What the mind does is primarily to be understood as a reflection of what language does, not vice versa.

Comments

Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, Vol. 33, No. 1 (2018): 61-67. DOI.

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