Aristotle Metaphysics Book Gamma 6 "There are some who, either seriously or for the sake of arguement, raise a difficulty by asking who decides who is healthy and, in general on any issue, whose judgement is right. Such perplexities are like asking whether we are now asleep or awake. For all such questions arise because men demand a reason for everything; they seek to prove that they can reach ultimate principals,but their very actions prove they are not convinced. We have already explained the source of their trouble: they seek a reason for things which have no reason, since the beginning of demonstration can not be demonstrated."
1012b "Against all such arguements, however, it must be asked, as has been said also in the previouse discussions .not that something is or is not, but that something has meaning; so that we must converse on the basis of definition by grasping what falsity or truth means." He goes on to state that to state anything as "the way it is" in naturally untrue since all things change. ----- Original Message ---- From: MarshaV <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sun, January 3, 2010 9:32:35 AM Subject: Re: [MD] Protagoras and "Measure" "The clearest form of the argument is given by Aristotle. In the fourth book of the *Metaphysics," Aristotle advances two decisive principles regarding primary substance (*ousia*): (i) necessarily, for every attribute, a substance either possesses that attribute or it does not, which is Aristotle's version of the principle of excluded middle; and (ii) for any substance, if anything may be predicted of it then, necessarily, its attributes cannot be accidents only, or only apparent properties, the violation of which Aristotle takes to entail contradiction. Protagoras, apparently, violates both -- which shows at the least that relativism was thought in the ancient world to involve a restriction on, or abandonment of, the principle of excluded middle. Now,*if* it is not true that reality is changeless, then, of course, (ii) must be given up; and if (ii) is abandoned, then, on Aristotle's own reading of (ii), (i) must be given up also. But the ancients understood the doctrine, "man is the measure," to entail at least that reality is not changeless -- also, therefore, that if man can rightly claim to have knowledge, than, on Protagoras' argument, knowledge cannot be addressed to what is changeless in reality. This much at least yields a stalemate between Aristotle and Protagoras: thus far, neither one's thesis is obviously incoherent. But even this much favors Protagoras, because Aristotle holds that the violation of (i) and (ii) yields contradiction. More would need to be said. Aristotle does have more to say. There is another argument, a bridge argument, that is decisive for Aristotle: "if not all things are relative, but some are self-existent, not everything that appears will be true"; and *that*, which is tantamount to (ii), must, *somewhere* in Protagoras' argument, yield the denial of those properties of particular substances *that are changeless.* Nothing could be more reasonable. The only trouble is that Protagoras rejects the thesis that there *is* something changeless, and Aristotle nowhere shows convincingly that *that* produces contradiction, except, trivially, *by* presupposing the truth of what must first be shown to be true. So Aristotle fails. Certainly, in our own time, nearly every prominent thinker either believes that reality is not changeless or believes that it is not demonstrably true that believing *that* cannot but be incoherent." (Margolis, Joseph, 'The Truth About Relativism' (Paperback), pp.77-78) _______________________________________________________________________ Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars... Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
