greek-epistemologyfeatured in 40 works

Demonstration

Aristotle's model of true scientific proof: a chain of valid reasoning that traces a conclusion all the way back to self-evident first truths.

Demonstration (apodeixis) is Aristotle's picture of genuine scientific knowledge, laid out in the Posterior Analytics in the 4th century BCE. A demonstration is a syllogism whose premises are true, primary, and better known than the conclusion, and which explain why that conclusion must hold — so to follow the proof is to understand the cause. This vision of knowledge built up step by step from indemonstrable first principles became the template for Euclid's geometry and for the very idea of a rigorous 'science.'

How it traveled

Rhetoric
Chalcis · -335
explains
Analytica priora
Chalcis · -322
explains
Metaphysics
Chalcis · -322
explains
Nicomachean Ethics
Chalcis · -322
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Eudemian Ethics
Chalcis · -322
explains
Topica
Chalcis · -322
explains
Elementa
Alexandria · -300
explains
De conoidibus et sphaeroidibus
Syracuse (Sicily) · -212
explains
De sphaera et cylindro
Syracuse (Sicily) · -212
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Institutio Oratoria
Rome · 95
explains
Adversus Mathematicos
Alexandria · 190
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Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes
Alexandria · 210
explains
Vitae philosophorum
— · 240
explains
Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael
Eretz Yisrael (travels) · 250
Sifrei Devarim
Eretz Yisrael (travels) · 250
Sanhedrin
Sura (Babylonia) · 500
HaEmunot veHaDeot
Sura (Babylonia) · 933
Duties of the Heart
Zaragoza (Saragossa) · 1080
Kuzari
Jerusalem · 1120
Guide for the Perplexed
Cairo · 1190
Yalkut Shimoni on Torah
Tiberias · 1250
Sefer HaIkkarim
Soria · 1425
synthesis
Akeidat Yitzchak
Tarragona · 1490
Abarbanel on Torah
Naples · 1505
synthesis
Avodat HaKodesh (Ibn Gabbai)
Cairo · 1523
Malbim on Job
Bucharest · 1860
Malbim on Isaiah
Bucharest · 1860
Commentary on Sefer Hamitzvot of Rasag
Lviv (Lemberg) · 1914
In Aristotelis Analyticorum Priorum Librum I Commentarium
Athens
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Anonymi In Analyticorum Posteriorum Librum Alterum Commentarium
—
explains
In Aristotelis analytica priora [Sp.]
—
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Syntaxis mathematica
Alexandria
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In Aristotelis Analyticorum Priorum Librum I Commentarium
Alexandria
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Fragmenta Logica et Physica
Athens
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In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.]
—
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Institutio logica [attributed]
Rome
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De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis
Rome
explains
Stromata
—
explains
Commentarii in libros de sphaera et cylindro
Alexandria
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De communi mathematica scientia
Apamea
explains

Key passages(20)

Sefer HaIkkarim, Maamar 1 17:4↗synthesis

Sefer HaIkkarim · Rabbi Yosef Albo · 1425 CE

Read in Sefaria→

Very high

וכל אחד מאלו הארבע מינים מן ההקדמות אין ספק בהם שיושמו התחלה ושורש למופת. כי כמו שמופתי ההנדסה, שהם כלם בנויים על המושכלות הראשונות, והמופתים הטבעיים, שהם בנויים על המוחשות, הן אמת שאין ספק בהם כלל אח

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Abarbanel on Torah, Deuteronomy.5 6:3↗synthesis

Abarbanel on Torah · Don Isaac Abarbanel · 1483 CE

Read in Sefaria→

Very high

דע שלא בא הקב"ה לסיני להודיע לעם היותו נמצא או מחוייב המציאות כי המדע הזה הוא מושכל יגיע השכל אליו בהקדמותיו ומופתיו. וחכמי הפלוסופים השלמו באמתתו. ולא היו ישראל צריכים לשמוע מפי הגבורה זה כיון שהם מע

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Origin Anchor — gr-demonstration↗origin

Fragments & Testimonia · Aristotle