Authors/Aristotle/priora/Liber 1/C35

Chapter 35

Greek	Latin	English
	(PL 64 0677D) CAPUT XXXVII. De ecthesi terminorum compositorum et obliquorum syllogismi.	35
48a29 Οὐ δεῖ δὲ τοὺς ὅρους ἀεὶ ζητεῖν ὀνόματι ἐκτίθεσθαι· πολλάκις γὰρ ἔσονται λόγοι οἷς οὐ κεῖται ὄνομα· διὸ χαλεπὸν ἀνάγειν τοὺς τοιούτους συλλογισμούς. ἐνίοτε δὲ καὶ ἀπατᾶσθαι συμβήσεται διὰ τὴν τοιαύτην ζήτησιν, οἷον ὅτι τῶν ἀμέσων ἔστι συλλογισμός. ἔστω τὸ Α δύο ὀρθαί, τὸ ἐφ᾽ ὧι Β τρίγωνον, ἐφ᾽ ὧι δὲ Γ ἰσοσκελές. τῶι μὲν οὖν Γ ὑπάρχει τὸ Α διὰ τὸ Β, τῶι δὲ Β οὐκέτι δι᾽ ἄλλο (καθ᾽ αὑτὸ γὰρ τὸ τρίγωνον ἔχει δύο ὀρθάσ), ὥστ᾽ οὐκ ἔσται μέσον τοῦ Α Β, ἀποδεικτοῦ ὄντος. φανερὸν γὰρ ὅτι τὸ μέσον οὐχ οὕτως ἀεὶ ληπτέον ὡς τόδε τι, ἀλλ᾽ ἐνίοτε λόγον, ὅπερ συμβαίνει κἀπὶ τοῦ λεχθέντος.	(0678A) Non oportet autem terminos semper quaerere nomine exponi, saepe enim erunt orationes quibus non ponuntur nomina, quare et difficile erit reducere huiusmodi syllogismos, aliquot es autem et falli accidet propter huiusmodi inquisitionem, ut quoniam immediatorum erit syllogismus; sit enim A duo recti, B autem triangulus, C vero aequicrurus; ergo ei quod est C inest A propter B; ei vero quod est B, non iterum propter aliud, per se enim triangulus habet duos rectos, quare non erit medium eius quod est A B, cum sit demonstrativum. Manifestum enim quoniam medium non sic semper est sumendum ut hoc aliquid, sed aliquando orationem, quod accidit et in praedicto.	We must not always seek to set out the terms a single word: for we shall often have complexes of words to which a single name is not given. Hence it is difficult to reduce syllogisms with such terms. Sometimes too fallacies will result from such a search, e.g. the belief that syllogism can establish that which has no mean. Let A stand for two right angles, B for triangle, C for isosceles triangle. A then belongs to C because of B: but A belongs to B without the mediation of another term: for the triangle in virtue of its own nature contains two right angles, consequently there will be no middle term for the proposition AB, although it is demonstrable. For it is clear that the middle must not always be assumed to be an individual thing, but sometimes a complex of words, as happens in the case mentioned.