Chapter 2 - Dialectic in the Early Peripatos

Summary

The sources for the early Peripatetic views on dialectic are scarce. They enable us conjecturally to credit Theophrastus with six main contributions to this area: (1) a new grouping of the predicables; (2) the inclusion of the problems pertaining to sameness among those pertaining to genera; (3) an examination of issues pertaining to division and classification; (4) a definition of ‘place’ (absent from Aristotle’s Topics); (5) an interest in inferences that look like instances of modus ponens; (6) a detailed examination of ‘precepts’ (i.e., instructions about how to proceed in a dialectical discussion). The evidence for Eudemus and Strato is even poorer: Eudemus appears to have emphasized the destructive character of dialectic and to have reflected on the status of dialectical propositions; Strato seems to have studied rather technical issues and to have added some ‘places’ concerning priority.