greek-epistemologyfeatured in 40 works

Definition

Pinning down exactly what something is by naming its kind and what sets it apart from everything else of that kind.

A definition (horismos) answers the question 'what is it?' by capturing a thing's essence. Socrates pressed for such accounts — 'what is justice?' — and Plato dramatized the hunt for them, but it was Aristotle in the 4th century BCE who turned definition into a method: state the essence through genus and differentia, naming the broader class (say, 'animal') and the distinguishing mark (say, 'rational'). For two thousand years this became the backbone of logic, science, and law, shaping how every later tradition framed and classified its ideas.

How it traveled

Cratylus
Athens · -375
explains
Republic
Athens · -375
explains
Theaetetus
Athens · -369
explains
Sophist
Athens · -360
explains
Statesman
Athens · -358
explains
Memorabilia
Athens · -354
explains
Greater Hippias
Athens · -348
explains
Rhetoric
Chalcis · -335
explains
Metaphysics
Chalcis · -322
explains
Topica
Chalcis · -322
explains
Nicomachean Ethics
Chalcis · -322
explains
Eudemian Ethics
Chalcis · -322
explains
Analytica priora
Chalcis · -322
explains
Elementa
Alexandria · -300
explains
Institutio Oratoria
Rome · 95
explains
Noctes Atticae
Rome · 180
explains
Adversus Mathematicos
Alexandria · 190
explains
Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes
Alexandria · 210
explains
Vitae philosophorum
— · 240
explains
Bekhorot
Sura (Babylonia) · 500
Duties of the Heart
Zaragoza (Saragossa) · 1080
Sefer HaMitzvot
Fostat (Old Cairo) · 1180
Guide for the Perplexed
Cairo · 1190
Yalkut Shimoni on Torah
Tiberias · 1250
Sefer HaIkkarim
Soria · 1425
Akeidat Yitzchak
Tarragona · 1490
Abarbanel on Torah
Naples · 1505
Avodat HaKodesh (Ibn Gabbai)
Cairo · 1523
Malbim on Leviticus
Bucharest · 1860
Malbim on Numbers
Bucharest · 1860
Malbim on Proverbs
Bucharest · 1860
Torah Temimah on Torah
Pinsk · 1904
Commentary on Sefer Hamitzvot of Rasag
Lviv (Lemberg) · 1914
Tosefta Kifshutah on Terumot
Jerusalem · 1936
Tosefta Kifshutah on Eruvin
Jerusalem · 1949
Anonymi In Analyticorum Posteriorum Librum Alterum Commentarium
—
explains
In Porphyrii Isagogen Sive Quinque Voces
Alexandria
explains
In Aristotelis Analyticorum Priorum Librum I Commentarium
Athens
explains
De differentiis pulsuum
Rome
explains
In Aristotelis Categorias Commentarius
Alexandria
explains

Key passages(20)

Guide for the Perplexed, Part 1 52:2↗

Guide for the Perplexed · Moses ben Maimon (Rambam) · 1190 CE

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קבוצה א. תואר מגדיר מהות2 הקבוצה הראשונה: תיאור הדבר בהגדרתו, כתיאור האדם כ"בעל חיים הוגה". וכבר ביארנו (א,נא4-3) שהתואר הזה, והוא המורה על מהות הדבר ואמיתתו (=מהותו האמיתית), הוא פירוש שם ותו לא. מין

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Alexander of Aphrodisias, In Aristotelis Analyticorum Priorum Librum I Commentarium 46b22↗challenges

In Aristotelis Analyticorum Priorum Librum I Commentarium · Alexander of Aphrodisias