Aristotle: posterior analytics...

Book excerpt: Aristotle's “Posterior Analytics”, Book II, Chapter 19, contains one of the most significant texts in the history of philosophy and, in particular, the field of epistemology. Paolo C. Biondi's book offers a new English translation, along with a commentary and critical analysis, of this important text. The originality of the translation is grounded in the exegesis found in the commentary, which also provides an overview of the interpretations of many Aristotelian philosophers from the Greek commentators through to contemporary scholars. The critical analysis is an in-depth essay on Aristotle's thoughts on logic and psychology. Even though the essay's main argument — that human intuition lies at the base of the mind's grasp of the principles of science — reaffirms the traditional position, the conclusion is arrived at by an ingenious step-by-step study of each of the various human faculties of cognition, a study that is much like the process of putting together the pieces of a puzzle.