Aristotle - The Organon - index for ANALYTICA POSTERIORA Book 1 Part 32

Basic truths are not limited in number

Paragraph 1 All syllogisms cannot have the same basic truths.

Paragraph 2 Nor can any of the common axioms - such, I mean, as the law of excluded middle - serve as premisses for the proof of all conclusions.

Paragraph 3 Again, it is not true that the basic truths are much fewer than the conclusions, for the basic truths are the premisses, and the premisses are formed by the apposition of a fresh extreme term or the interposition of a fresh middle.

Paragraph 4 Looking at it in this way we see that, since the number of conclusions is indefinite, the basic truths cannot be identical or limited in number.

HTML by

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


Paragraph 1	All syllogisms cannot have the same basic truths.
Paragraph 2	Nor can any of the common axioms - such, I mean, as the law of excluded middle - serve as premisses for the proof of all conclusions.
Paragraph 3	Again, it is not true that the basic truths are much fewer than the conclusions, for the basic truths are the premisses, and the premisses are formed by the apposition of a fresh extreme term or the interposition of a fresh middle.
Paragraph 4	Looking at it in this way we see that, since the number of conclusions is indefinite, the basic truths cannot be identical or limited in number.