Aristotle - The Organon - index for ANALYTICA POSTERIORA Book 1 Part 16

Ignorance is error produced by inference

Paragraph 1 Ignorance - defined not as the negation of knowledge but as a positive state of mind - is error produced by inference.

Paragraph 2 (1) Let us first consider propositions asserting a predicate's immediate connexion with or disconnexion from a subject.

Paragraph 3 Error of attribution, then, occurs through these causes and in this form only - for we found that no syllogism of universal attribution was possible in any figure but the first.

Paragraph 4 (c) It may occur when both premisses are false;

Paragraph 5 (d) It is also possible when one is false.

Paragraph 6 In the second figure the premisses cannot both be wholly false;

Paragraph 7 It is thus clear that in the case of atomic propositions erroneous inference will be possible not only when both premisses are false but also when only one is false.

HTML by

created 1996/11/25 modified 2009/04/26


Paragraph 1	Ignorance - defined not as the negation of knowledge but as a positive state of mind - is error produced by inference.
Paragraph 2	(1) Let us first consider propositions asserting a predicate's immediate connexion with or disconnexion from a subject.
Paragraph 3	Error of attribution, then, occurs through these causes and in this form only - for we found that no syllogism of universal attribution was possible in any figure but the first.
Paragraph 4	(c) It may occur when both premisses are false;
Paragraph 5	(d) It is also possible when one is false.
Paragraph 6	In the second figure the premisses cannot both be wholly false;
Paragraph 7	It is thus clear that in the case of atomic propositions erroneous inference will be possible not only when both premisses are false but also when only one is false.