Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Understanding and Being

Titel: Understanding and Being

Stichwort: Aristoteles, Syllogismus, to ti ên einai, quod quid erat esse: intelligibile in sensibilibus

Kurzinhalt: Mond: causa cognoscendi, causa essendi; Mittelterm als Antwort auf die Frage; Unterschied zw. Definition (to ti estin) und Form;

Textausschnitt: () ... The example states: if the moon has phases, then it is a sphere; the moon goes through phases; therefore, it is a sphere. ... When phases is the middle term, we have the causa cognoscendi, the reason why we know. But when the sphere is the middle term, we have the causa essendi, the reason why the thing is so.
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Aristotle's doctrine of the explanatory syllogism shows that he is trying to do in his logic something that the symbolic logician is trying to avoid.
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Aristotle holds that the answer to all questions is a matter of finding the middle term. It must be found not only when there are three terms but even in the case of the simple question, What is the moon?
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What is the difference between to ti ên einai and to ti estin, between the form and the definition? It is the difference, with which we have already dealt, between the content of the insight and the conception, the general definition. Aristotle moved back as best he could - and it is marvelous that he did as well as he did - from conception to insight, by talking about their objects: to ti ên einai, the form; to ti estin, the definition; and also ousia (essence).
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'What is a man?' He says that ti estin means dioti, or why is it, or propter quid; that quid means propter quid; and that what means why. But how can one ask, 'Why is a man?' That does not seem to make much sense; but one can make it make sense by asking, 'Why is this a man?' just as 'Why are these bricks and stones a house?'
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The to ti ên einai is what you understand before you are able to formulate it; it is the form, intelligibile in sensibilibus (the intelligible in the sensible).