classics digests, reflections and reviews
Despair, Anger and Hatred “Anger arises from offences against oneself, enmity may arise …because of what we take to be their character. Anger is accompanied by pain, hatred is not;… for the one would have the offenders suffer for what they have done; the other would have them cease to exist.” –Aristotle in “Rhetoric“ Medea, princess of Colchis and granddaughter of Helios, was both angry and hateful toward her husband Jason, […]
Read moreAn acute observer of human nature, Aristotle gives a comprehensive psychological analysis of human emotions and motives. His diagnosis is humorous at times and chilling at others, entertaining and yet incisive. Modes of Persuasion Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of […]
Read morePoetry Is Imitation First, the instinct of imitation is implanted in man from childhood, …he is the most imitative of living creatures, and through imitation learns his earliest lessons; and no less universal is the pleasure felt in things imitated. …Thus the reason why men enjoy seeing a likeness is, that in contemplating it they find themselves learning or inferring, and saying perhaps, ‘Ah, that is he.’ … Next, there […]
Read moreWhat is Sophistry? That some reasonings are genuine, while others seem to be so but are not, is evident. This happens with arguments, as also elsewhere, through a certain likeness between the genuine and the sham. For physically some people are in a vigorous condition, while others merely seem to be so by blowing and rigging themselves out as the tribesmen do their victims for sacrifice; and some people are […]
Read moreAristotle’s Foundational Works on Logic The general categories enumerated herein have been widely accepted and used even at present, which speaks to Aristotle’s enormous influence on western civilization. His reasoning, however, is faulty in quite a few instances, especially with regard to the relation between genus and species. Categories Substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, action, or affection. [–Update in 2014 –] 1. Substance Substance, in the truest […]
Read morePropositions “Truth and falsity imply combination (copulation) and separation.” The denial must deny just that which the affirmation affirms concerning the same subject, and must correspond with the affirmation both in the universal or particular character of the subject and in the distributed or undistributed sense in which the proposition is understood. If anything else be negatively predicated of the subject or if anything else be the subject though the […]
Read moreThe Cause of Its Own Essence Demonstration is syllogism that proves the cause, i.e. the reasoned fact, and it is rather the commensurate universal than the particular which is causative (as may be shown thus: that which possesses an attribute through its own essential nature is itself the cause of the inherence, and the commensurate universal is primary; hence the commensurate universal is the cause). To know its essential nature […]
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