At first, the main ideas of this chapter were not immediately apparent to me on my first two introductory light reads. I was trying to organize it into parts but was not understanding how to divide the chapter. I think my field of view was too deductive, or narrow, having just come out of On Interpretation. It wasn’t until I began the process of taking careful notes and working through each line, that the main ideas revealed themselves: proposition, term, syllogism. It seemed as if Aristotle just picked me up by the collar from the ground, while I was in the middle of looking at the individual grains of sand, and showed me the bigger picture of the beach we were standing on, or at least to be aware of it. The terms form the proposition, the proposition forms the syllogism, and the syllogism signifies the reasoning, and perhaps the deeper meaning beyond it.
Everything after that, as far as comprehension were concerned, was locked into place, and it was not difficult to organize my notes. My question to the tutor then became: “Is this structural framework (proposition, term, syllogism) necessary to penetrate the truth of reality?” The simple answer was “Yes… this framework is fundamental to Aristotle’s theory of knowledge and demonstration, as it enables the penetration of truth by logically deriving conclusions from primary truths.” My reply was: “Then it seems to me that rational minds are incapable of omniscience, and creating anything from nothing, but rather coming to know what is, and what was; also, coming to fabricate, or form new things from what is, and what was, created prior to Man’s existence, am I correct? It seems as if Man was put into a reality, which he can come to know, and interact with, but could not create himself. In fact, it seems as if nothing tangible, or intangible, whether physical, or intellectual, would be something outside of, or in addition to, the given and designed capacity, or potency, of what could be.
So, i.e. rational minds must have been designed to employ this framework: to be aware of the truth, to investigate the truth, the know the truth, to be protected by the truth, and to teach the truth. The truth is, what is, as God has it to be. In His omniscience, it seems that he gave us the power to be able to come to know the energy of His will, which is what is. So, therefore, logic seems to be an invitation to walk with Him, to penetrate the truth, be transformed by the truth, and perfected by the truth.”
The tutor replied and introduced me to a new term: “The intellect does not bring into being new essences or realities from nothing but discovers and works with what is. Therefore, your understanding that man is placed in a reality where he can know, interact with, and form new things from what is pre-existing, but cannot create himself or reality ex nihilo (from nothing), aligns well with Aristotle’s philosophy as presented in these classical texts.”
EAR