The seventh passage from this final chapter of On Interpretation was very subtle. I nearly glossed over and missed what Aristotle was conveying here about deception. The passage was very short, he says: “But in those things in which there is deception [contraries are to be admitted]; and these are things from which there are generations. Generations, however, are from opposites; and, therefore, deceptions also.” In my mind, I immediately recalled that generation is motion away from what was. As I abstracted, I imagined something becoming something else, like a baby becoming an adult.
Deception, in the way that Aristotle put it, seemed to go in the opposite direction, as if there was an induction happening. So, what is now, the reality, is being asserted as the same as what it was, or what it never was. Using that same image before, it’s as if to assert:
“The adult is a baby”. I took this interpretation to the tutor: “Concerning deception, it seems that generation is opposed to what was, and therefore the distance between the two contraries is apparent to all; but deception seems to be the assertion of a contrary inductively under the other contrary and being of the opinion that they are univocal, when they are actually equivocal.”
The tutor confirmed my interpretation as aligning well with Aristotle and added that sophistical fallacies blur the distance between contraries, thereby obscuring reality. I came up with examples to demonstrate this deception being employed: “astrology is astronomy”, “abortions are equal rights”, “witchcraft is natural philosophy”, “communism is social justice”, “capitalism is charity”, “affairs are love”, etc.
EAR